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N.  Y. 


PAT.  JAN.  21  \m 


\o    I 


COMMON  SENSE 


ON  MONEY. 


By  A.  H.  LOW. 

Third  Edition. 

4?^*  This  book  is  not  published  in  the  interest  of  any 
)arty.      Please  read  the  preface  first. 


BUFFALO : 

Press  of  E.  H.  HUTCHINSON. 

12  TO  18  Eaqlk  Street. 

1885. 


BRARY 


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COMMON  SENSE 


ON  MONEY. 


l^v  A.  H.  LOW. 

Third  Edition. 


BUFFALO : 

PHE8»  OF   E.   H.   HUTCHINSON, 
12  TO  18  Eaolc  Street 


'^V 


PUOXICH. 


Any  publisher  desiring  to  copy  any  or 
all  of  this  work  will  be  granted  the  right  to 
do  so  in  writing,  free,  on  application  to  me 
by  letter,  on  condition  that  he  shall  pub- 
lish one  or  more  of  the  three  divisions,  i.  e., 
the  100  paragraphs,  the  lecture  or  the  dia- 
logue in  full.  I  make  X\\\s  condition  to  save 
from  being  misquoted  and  misunderstood. 
My  object  in  copyrighting  the  work  was 
to  prevent  its  being  garbled  by  my  oppo- 
^fienrts.       '^    '     .  .-  :   ; 

r  ''-'  '■  A.  H.  LOW. 


To    Truth,  Justice  and  Liberty,  this  little  book  is 
most  reverently  dedicated. 


Copyright,  1883,  by  Alvin  H.  Low. 


'>=^^ 


--v,/2,i>=rS?:f|r=:{^»2A^^— 


379940 


CONTENTS. 

Preface. 

One  Hundred  Paragraphs  on  Money. 

Quotations  from  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
Jackson,  Tyler,  Benton,  and  the  U.  S.  Supreme 
Court. 

Values  and  Money. — A  Lecture. 

Dialogue  between  A.  and  B.,  on  the  money  ques- 
tion. 


-►^^ 


'^- 


;EFACE  to  S1:( 


EDITION. 


The  rapid  sale  of  the  first  edition  has  convinced 
the  author  that  he  has  not  mistaken  the  temper  of 
the  times. 

This  little  book  is  not  published  in  the  interest 
of  any  political  party,  nor  for  the  purpose  of  es- 
tablishing a  new  party.  The  only  motive  is  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  Truth  and  Justice  in  relation  to 
the  most  important  of  all  national  questions,  mo?iey. 
Political  parties  are  composed  of  the  people,  and 
unless  the  people  are  properly  informed  on  national 
questions  their  representatives  will  not  be.  An 
American  citizen  has  a  double  duty — that  of 
sovereign  and  that  of  iuhjcct.  Wnolesome  laws  are 
tne  fru.is  of  a  wise  exercise  of  sovereign  authority. 
The  power  to  make  iaws  is  the  highest  power  which 
cai  be  possessed  by  mai..  Hew  important  then 
that  virtue  and  wisdom  should  temper  the  exercise 
lof  that  power  !  No  political  party  embodies  all 
the  virtue  and  wisdom  of  a  country.  No  one  is 
•wholly  right  —  no  one  altogether  wrong.  The  safe- 
Ity  of  the  republic  requires  that  there  shall  be  more 
[than  one  party.     Absolute  ])ower  is  dangerous   in 


the  hands  of  any  party  aS  Well  as  in  the  hands  of 
any  man.  There  are  political  parties  enough  in 
the  United  States  to-day.  If  their  leaders  were  a.  1 
as  zealous  in  emulating  each  other  in  good  works 
as  they  are  in  vilifying  one  another,  the  land  would 
soon  resound  with  the  glad  shouts  of  happy  work- 
ers, instead  of  echoing  the  groans  of  fuffering  and 
down-trampled  millions.  But  to  do  right  we  must 
know  the  right  :  then,  if  we  do  it  not,  our  SLlTcr- 
ings  will  be  but  just  penalties.  For  every  evil, 
there  is  a  vicious  cause,  and  if  we  would  remedy 
the  evil,  we  must  first  find  the  cause,  and  then  re- 
move it.  It  is  with  the  overwhelming  conviction 
that  the  greater  portion  of  the  suffering  and  op- 
pression experienced  by  the  masses  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  and  especially  of  the  laboring 
classes,  is  due  to  a  vicious  money  system,  (not  so 
much  in  the  quality  as  in  the  issue  and  control  of 
the  money,)  and  with  the  hope  of  shedding  the 
light  of  Truth  upon  the  subject,  so  that  men  of 
every  political  party  can  see  their  duty  in  relation  to 
it,  that  the  author  has  written  this  book.  He  be- 
lieves that  nearly  every  proposition  stated  herein, 
bears  self-evident  truth  upon  its  face,  and  all  are 
susceptible  of  overwhelming  proof.  Extensive  quo- 
tation of  authorities  and  exhaustive  argument  would 


fell  the  book  far  beyond  desirable  and  useful  lim- 
|s.      He  contents  himself  therefore,  with  the  rec- 
"ollection  that  ^*  brevity    is  the  soul  of  wit,"    and 
that  ''  enough  is  as  good  as  a  feast." 

A.  H.  LOW. 


COMMON  SENSE  ON  MONEY. 


1.  In  every  commercial  country,  artificial  facil- 
ity for  mating  exchanges  is  absolutely  necessary. 

2.  Man  has  invented  money  as  a  facility  for 
making  exchanges. 

3.  Nothing  is  money  until  made  so  by  man 
through  his  laws. 

4.  The  value  of  money  determines  the  nominal 
value  of  everything  for  sale. 

5.  Money  is  the  measure  of  value. 

6 .  The  measure  of  value  should  be  as  fixed  and 
unchangeable  as  the  measure  of  length  or  weight. 

7.  How  to  establish  a  measure  of  value  which 
will  be  fixed  and  unchangeable,  has  vexed  the 
statesmen  of  ages. 

8.  The  variability  in  the  standard  measure  of 
value,  has  wrought  more  injustice  and  suffering  in 
the  commercial  world  than  all  other  causes  com- 
bined. 

9.  All  money  should  be  secure  —  a  careful  man 
would  not  go  upon  an  unsafe  bridge. 

10.  Most  commercial  nations  have  tried  to  make 
gold  the  standard  measure  of  value  ;  but  gold  va- 
ries in  value,  hence  it  is  not  an  unvariable  measure. 


11.  All  money  to  have  actual  value  must  be  se- 
:ured,  for  money  is  not  security  —  it  only  represents 

security.  The  money  of  gold  coin  is  secured  by 
and  represents  the  gold  in  the  coin  ;  the  money  of 
[a  National  bank-note  is  secured  by  U.  S.  bonds  ; 
U.  S.  bonds  are  secured  by  the  honor  and  ability 
of  the  United  States  to  pay  in  gold  or  its  equiva- 
lent in  value.  Hence  National  bank-notejatoney  is 
secured  by,  and  represents  value  not  in  it.  [See  ^  53.] 

12.  Gold  and  other  coin,  is  prevented  by  law 
from  being  used  for  other  purposes  than  money, 
while  it  is  money;  when  used  for  anything  else  it 
is  not  money,  and  paper  money  ca?inot  be  used  for 
anything  else. 

13.  Something  /////^/ and /2J?« determine  the  meas- 
ure of  the  value  of  money  as  such,  whether  gold 
or  paper.  The  interest  which  it  draws  does  it. 
[Seel   !•*•] 

14.  The  statement  (paragraph  13)  that  interest 
which  it  draws  determines  the  measure  of  the  value 
of  money  as  such,   is  based  on  the  supposition  that 

1  the  money  is  based  on  good  security  ;  for  if  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  gold  is  a  standard  of  security, 
money  which  represents  less  in  value,,  measured  by 
a  full  standard,  than  its  nominal  value  indicates, 
will  be  worth    proportionately  less  in  actual  value. 


10 


than  though  it  were  fully  secured  and  will  be  so 
much  below  par,  and  for  this  reason  :  The  law  of 
supply  and  demand  operates  to  affect  Lhe  current 
medium  of  exchange  —  money,  first,  by  determin- 
ing the  commercial  value  of  that  which  secures  said 
money,  as  an  article  of  commerce,  and  secondly  as 
a  medium  of  exchange  —  money.  Yox  example: 
The  commercial  value  of  gold  as  such,  is  regulated 
by  the  supply  and  demand  of  gold  for  its  various 
uses.  In  this  sense  the  value  of  a  piece  of  gold  is 
measured  by  the  commodities  for  which  it  can  be 
bartered.  When  the  same  piece  of  gold  is  coined 
into  money,  it  is  given  a  function  or  use  which  it 
did  not  before  possess  —  that  of  money.  And  it  is 
this  new  function  that  the  interest  it  draws  indi- 
cates the  value  of. 

To  make  a  just  currency,  its  value  as  money  and 
the  value  of  its  security  must  be  maintained  at  the 
same  degree. 

15.  For  banking  purposes,  a  dollar  which  will 
draw  six  per  cent,  interest  is  worth  more  than  twice 
as  much  as  a  dollar  which  can  draw  only  three  per 
cent,   interest. 

16.  All  other  things  being  equal,  a  dollar  which 
will  draw  only  two  per  cent,  one  day  and  will  draw 


I 


11 


ix  per  cent,  the  next,  is  not  an  unvariable  meas- 
ure of  value. 

17.  Interest  measures  the  value  of  money,  and 
money  the  value  of  everything  for  sale.      Hence  a 

hange  in  the  rate  of  interest  changes  the    money 
value  of  everything  for  sale. 

18.  Every  one  who  sells  anything  for  money,  or 
buys  anything  with  money,  uses  the  measure  i)f 
value  every  time  he  so  sells  or  buys. 

19.  Every  time  the  value  of  money  is  changed 
by  a  change  in  the  rate  of  interest  it  will  draw, 
the  value  of  everything  for  sale  is  changed  inversely. 
If  money  costs  more,  (draws  liigher  interest,)  other 
things  sell  for  less,  and  when  money  costs  less, 
(draws  lower  interest,)  other  things  sell  for  more. 

20.  Congress  has  the  power,  and  it  is  its  duty  to 
regulate  and  fix  the  value  of  money,  as  well  as  to 
fix  the  standard  of  weiglits  and  measures.  [See 
Const.  U.  S.,  Art.  1,  Sec.  s.] 

21.  Congress  has  never  /?.vr^/ the  value  of  money. 

22.  Congress  has  attempted  to  regulate  the  value 
f  money  by  fixing  the    nuixiniivn  rate    of  interest 

to  be  legally  charged  by  the  National  Banking  Asso- 
ciations, while  no  minimum  is    fixed.      Hence    the 
alue  of  money  is  not  fixed.     [See  ^  4:i.] 
28.   Suppose  Congress  should  say  **  the  yard  shall 


12 


never  be  more  than  three    feet    long,  but  it  may  be 
less/'  would  the  yard  measure  be  fixed?     No. 

24.  Suppose  Congress  should  say  to  a  corpora- 
tion, ^'we  give  you,  exclusively,  the  yard-stick; 
it  shall  be  the  standard  measure  of  length  through- 
the  country  ;  you  shall  not  increase  its  length,  but 
you  may  diminish  it  whenever  it  can  be  done  to 
your  advantage/'  would  not  the  measure  of  all 
property  to  be  measured  by  the  yard  be  subjected 
to  the  caprice  of  that  corporation  ?  Congress  has 
done  as  much  with  money. 

25.  If  I  have  a  farm  worth  $1,000  which  will 
pay  me  a  net  yearly  profit  of  $10,  and  for  that  rea- 
son the  government  freely  enables  me  exclusively 
to  lend  my  note  for  $900,  and  I  do  it  and  receive 
$63  as  interest  for  the  use  of  it  the  same  year^  has 
not  the  government  increased  my  wealth  $63  with- 
out a  consideration  ?  Yes.  The  government  does 
as  much  for  the  bondholders  —  the  National  Bank- 
ing Associations. 

2G.  The  "National  Banking  System"  has  one 
good  feature  that  the  old  banking  system  did  not 
have  —  the  payment  of  National  Bank  Notes  is  se- 
cured.     [See  ^82.] 

27.     The  evils  and  injustice    resultins:    from  the 


13 

old   and  the    present   banking  systems  are    beyond 

Ifcomputation  for  magnitude. 
I  28.  Congress  has  bestowed  on  the  owners  of 
United  States  bonds,  this  great  exclusive  grant 
over  al  1  other  people  —  it  has  made  their  notes  money. 
Who  but  a  National  Banking  Association  can  pay 
his  debts  to  another  by  giving  his  own  note? 

20.  If  I  owe  a  debt  which  must  be  paid  in 
money,  7fiy  note,  however  well  secured,  will  not 
pay  it. 

30.  Except  the  metal  money,  '*  greenbacks" 
and  Treasury  certificates,  the  National  Banking 
Associations  provide  all  the  money,  and  may  pro- 
vide little  or  much  at  their  pleasure. 

3 1 .  The  National  Banking  Associations  are  only 
limited  in  the  amount  of  the  notes  they  can  issue 
by  the  amount  of  the  United  States  bonds  in  ex- 
istence, and  the  people's  need  of  facility  for  mak- 
ing exchanges.  They  can  go  no  farther  that  way  ; 
but  may  go  the  other  way  to  nothing. 

32.  One  great  wrong  of  the  ''National  Bank- 
ing System"  is,  that  the  government  endorses  and 
makes  money  of  the  notes  of  one  class,  who  can 
put  up  a  certain  kind  of  security,  exclusively. 

33.  The  National  Banking  Association,  by  hav- 
ing the  power  to  increase   or  diminish    the    facility 


14 


(money)  for  making  exchanges,  have  the  control 
of  the  measure  of  value  in  this  country.  They 
may  enlarge  it  by  contracting  and  charging  more 
interest,  and  diminish  it  by  expanding  and  charg- 
ing less,  —  and  they  do  ! 

34.  While  the  present  (A.  D.  1883)  banking 
system  exists,  the  measures  of  value  can  never  be 
fixed slXS.^  safe. 

35.  A  commercial  country  and  its  money  are  in 
many  respects  like  a  man's  body  and  blood;  when 
the  money  is  all  concentrated  in  the  banks  of  the 
*' money  centres  "  the  country  at  large  feels  the 
loss  of  the  vital  current  of  commerce,  and  all  busi- 
ness is  chilled  and  depressed.  So  with  a  man, 
when  there  is  a  congestion  of  blood  about  the  heart 
and  suffocation  there,  all  the  extremities  of  the 
body  are  cold  and  numb.  Start  the  current  in 
either  case  — drive  the  life-blood  out  into  the  body 
or  supply  sufficient  money  to  the  country,  and 
health  and  activity  are  restored.  Again  if  the  blood 
in  the  human  body  is  corrupted  —  becomes  watered 
or  otherwise  reduced  below  the  natural  standard, 
disease  to  the  whole  system  follows.  Corrupt  the 
money  of  a  country  —  make  some  poorer  than  the 
rest    or    change    its    quality    of  a    stable    standard 


15 

measure  of  value,  and  the  whole  economy  of  com- 
merce is  deranged. 

36.  A  •'  money  market  "  ought  to  be  an  impos- 
sibility, (loing  to  the  money  market  and  paying 
the  extortioner's  price  for  money  is  like  putting 
mustard  draughts  on  the  feet  to  get  up  a  circulation. 
The  very  act  pre-supposes  a  disease.  The  idea  of 
a  market  carries  with  it  the  idea  of  variation  in 
price. 

37.  No  one  can  afford  to  pay  as  great  a  price 
for  a  thing  with  money  which  he  has  borrowed,  or 
could  lend  at  seven  per  cent.,  as  he  could  at  one 
per  cent.,  and  this  is  why  the  interest  on  money 
governs  the  prices  of  tilings. 

38.  'i'he  intrinsic  value  of  things  does  not 
fluctuate  with  the  rate  of  interest  on  money — it 
is  their  nominal  or  selling  price  or  value  which 
fluctuates. 

30.  The  nominal  value  of  all  property  does 
not  fluctuate  simultaneously  with  the  rate  of  interest. 
It  takes  time  for  the  sound  of  a  blow  to  reach 
the  ear. 

40.  Whatever  power,  whether  of  person,  cor- 
poration, or  nation,  that  can  expand  and  contract 
the  volumeofthe  medium  of  exchange,  may  dimin- 
ish  or    increase    the    price  of  all   articles  for  sale, 


16 


and  does  so  whenever  such  expansion  or  contrac- 
tion is  made,  where  there  is  no  fixed,  permanent 
rate  of  interest.  The  National  Banking  As- 
sociations have  the  sole  power  over  the  volume  of 
money  in  the  United  States.  They  may  deposit 
United  States  bonds  and  increase  their  notes  with- 
out limit  (except  the  limited  amount  of  United 
States  bonds),  and  may  call  in  and  surrender  their 
notes  and  take  up  llieir  bonds. 

41.  The  only  motive  for  the  expansion  and 
contraction  of  the  medium  of  exchange  is  ^^/«  — 
gain  to  those  who  cause  the  change.  Interest  is  the 
gain  to  banking  associations. 

42.  By  combining,  the  National  Banking  As- 
sociations can,  in  a  short  time,  gather  in  and  hold 
all  the  money  in  the  country,  and  then  demand, 
and  receive,  the  highest  rate  of  interest  allowed  by 
law  for  loans,  and  continue  to  do  so  until  a  suffi- 
cient volume  for  making  exchanges  is  supplied. 
Then  by  refusing  to  loan,  and  forcing  payment  of 
their  creditors,  again  collect  in  and  withhold  all 
the  money,  when  the  operation  may  be  repeated. 
Is  not  the  National  Banking  System  a  national 
devil-fish  ? 

43.  The  Government  has  made  23.22  grains  of 
pure  gold  coined  into  a  dollar-piece  of  25.8  grains, 


the  unit  of  value  :  but  it  has  left  the  value  of  that 
unit  uncertain.  It  should  make  it  certain  by  fixing 
the  rate  of  interest  it  shall  draw  when  loaned. 
[See  ^1  22.]  Prior  to  1873  the  silver  dollar  was  the 
unit  of  value.  It  answered  the  purpose  very  well 
and  might  do  so  again,  with  ])ro per  laws,  re-rulating 
its  value 

44.  When  the  money  is  all  out,  the  money- 
lenders ran  sell  their  property  at  good  prices  — 
when  it  is  all  in  they  can  buy  it  back  at  reduced 
y)rices. 

4j.  By  co-operation  for  mutual  advantage, 
of  the  National  Hanking  Associations  and  ether 
money  lenders,  (brokers,  etc.,)  the  former  may 
decline  to  loan  to  the  people  generally,  but  loan  to 
the  latter  at  the  full  legal  rate  of  interest,  and  they, 
in  turn,  lend  to  the  people  at  higher  rates,  thus  de- 
mnnding  the  **  ])Ound  of  flesh." 

43.  The  exorbitant  compensation  the  people 
\yx'/  the  National  Banking  Associations  for  their 
services  is  the  least  of  the  evils  c.ttending  the 
National  Banking  System.  They  ?nay  increase  or 
diminish  the  ffieasi/re  of  value  at  7cill. 

47.  All  the  interest  paid  to  bankers  and  brokers 
for  the  use  of  money,  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  mak- 
ing and  issuing    said    money,    and    the  trifling  tax 


18 

they  pay  on  their  business,  is  extorted  from  the 
people  by  the  laws  made  by  the  people's  represen- 
tatives. 

48.  If  bankers  make  an  unjust  profit  (and  what 
one  does  not  ?)  the  people  must  lose  to  an  equal 
amount.  Bankers  as  such  have  been  non-producers, 
except  of  want  and  misery  to  others  ! 

49.  Ifiterest  is  the  banker's  income,  and  the 
gauge  by  which  the  value  of  money  is  deter- 
mined. 

50.  Money  is  the  measure  of  the  value  of  all 
things  for  sale  or  saleable.  There  are  things  the 
value  of  which  it  does  not  measure  as  air,  water, 
sunlight,  etc. 

51.  All  the  consideration  the  National  Banking 
Associations  give  in  return  for  their  exclusive 
rights,  is  the  small  tax  they  pay  the  Government 
and  the  cost  of  making  and  loaning  their  notes. 
If  this  could  be  done  by  the  Government,  they 
are  not  needed. 

52.  This  difference  exists  between  my  note 
and  that  of  the  National  Banking  Associations. 
I  pay  interest  on  my  note,  and  they  draw  inter- 
est on  theirs. 

53.  The  currency  of  money  depends  upon 
the  security  which  it  represents.      Hence  all  current 


19 

money  must  be  secured  hy  something.  [See  ^11.] 

54.  Silver  and  the  base  metal  coins  do  not  con- 
tain the  amount  of  security  that  gold  coin  does, 
yet  they  are  current  for  their  full  face  value.  Why? 
Because  the  government  has  issued  them  for  their 
face  value  and  made  them  redeemable  or  converti- 
ble for  their  face  value  in  gold.  When  presented 
in  certain  sums,  the  government  redeems  them  at 
their  face  value,  just  as  much  as  it  does  a  Treasury 
note.  In  other  words,  silver  and  the  base-metal 
coin  money  represents  the  metal  in  it  for  part  of 
its  face  value  and  the  honor  and  ability  of  the  nation 
to  pay  for  the  balance.  So  all  the  talk  about  sil- 
ver and  the  minor  coins  being  '*  the  money  of  the 
poor"  is  unfounded  ;  at  least  those  words  have 
been  used  to  convey  a  false  idea. 

55.  The  present  money  system  is  vicious  and 
oppressive  to  all  but  the  one  favored  class.  This 
wrong  we,  the  people,  through  our  representatives, 
have  done  ourselves,  and  we  alone  can  and  must 
re}}air  it. 

56.  If  justice  prevailed  among  men,  and  all 
were  hajipy,  no  reforms  would  be  sought  or 
needed.   , 

57.  All  reforms  are  inaugurated  by  the  sufferers 
from  the  wrong  sought  to  be  overcome. 


20 

58.  They  who  profit  by  wrong  never  seek  its 
overthrow  —  their  interests  point  the  other  way. 

59.  If  the  money-lenders  have  an  undue  and 
unjust  advantage  of  the  rest  of  the  community  the 
sufferers  must  right  the  wrong  —  the  others  never 
will. 

60.  The  ballot  is  the  weapon  with  which  Ameri- 
cans should  right  their  wrongs. 

61.  Complaining  of  evils  for  which  we  offer  no 
remedy,  is  a  weak  occupation. 

62.  The  necessity  for  a  measure  of  value  is 
universally  admitted,  and  it  is  a  self-evident  truth 
that  the  measure  should  be  standard,  unvariable 
and  fixed. 

63.  The  statesmen  (?)  of  this  country  have  selec- 
ted gold  as  the  material  best  suited  for  a  standard 
of  value.  They  have  never  fixed  its  wdlw^,  hence 
they  have  never  fixed  the  standard  of  value. 

64.  Value  is  not  matter.  Can  we  then  measure 
value  with  matter? 

65.  Gold  is  not  value  ;  it  is  substance.  The 
value  of  gold  is  its  use,  and  so  with  all  other  sub- 
stances. But  use  is  not  matter  or  substance. 
Then,  if  the  value  of  gold  is  its  use,  its  use  measures 
the  value  of  gold,  and  having  thus  determined  the 
value  of  a  quantity  of  gold  as  money,   we  may  fix  it 


21 


as   a  standard,    and   by  that  standard  measure  the 
value  of  all  other  things  for  sale.     [See  ^  72.] 

66.  There  is  no  fixed,  un variable  standard 
measure  of  value  in  this  country.  No,  not  in  the 
world,  to-day  1  We  must  provide  such  a  standard, 
or  suffer  a  thousand  times  more  than  we  now  do, 
for  this  is  a  new  country,  and  wealth  is  not  central- 
ized as  in  older  countries,  but  it  soon  will  be  if  we 
do  not  awake  ! 

67.  We,  the  Government,  take  the  bonds  which 
we  have  given,  as  security,  and  thereupon  make 
the  notes  of  the  pledgeors  money.  Is  no  other 
property  as  good  security  as  the  bonds  we  have 
given  ?  Is  not  land  ?  The  banks  take  it  and  many 
other  things  as  well. 

68.  The  Government  can  issue  its  own  notes 
equal  to  gold  in  value,  as  in  case  of  the  present 
**  greenbacks"  but  onfy  to  a  limited  extent ^  with- 
out additional  security.  The  extent  to  which  it 
may  do  so  depends  upon  its  revenues  and  sales  of 
lands,  etc.,  for  upon  these  depends  its  ability  to  pay 
or  redeem  them. 

60.  Why  could  not  and  should  not  the  Gov- 
ernment take  security  similar  to  that  which  the 
banks  take,  and  lend  its  notes  and  make  those 
notes  money  ? 


22 

70.  With  the  gold  dollar  as  a  standard  measure 
of  value,  all  other  money  should  be  secured  by  and 
represent  wmething  of  the  value  of  gold,  of  its 
nominal  —  its  declared  value.  So  all  money  should 
be  equal  in  measuring  values. 

71.  With  gold  money  as  a  standard,  the  secur- 
ity of  money  does  not  affect  the  value  of  money 
when  it  is  at  or  above  par  with  gold.  That  is,  if 
paper  money  is  so  secured  that  it  is  at  par  with 
gold  no  additional  security  can  make  it  at  a  premi- 
um. Its  convenience  over  gold  may  slightly  increase 
its  value,  but  its  security  does  not. 

72.  Money  is  worthless  if  it  cannot  be  used. 
Hence  the  use  of  money  is  all  that  gives  it  its  value. 
The  power  to  use  money  is  created  by  the  Govern- 
ment, or  law.  If  the  Government  can  create  the 
power  to  use  money,  may  it  not  limit  its  use  ? 
Yes,  it  may  do  that  by  establishing  a  fixed,  unvari- 
able  rate  of  interest.     [See  ^  65.] 

73.  As  matter  acted  upon  by  the  law  of  God  for 
that  purpose,  becomes  a  living  soul,  so  matter, 
acted  upon  by  the  law  of  man  for  that  purpose,  be- 
comes money. 

74.  If  Government  makes  money  which  is  not 
secured  in  some  uuiy,  it  will    not  be  used  as  a  medi- 


23 

uin  of  exchange.     Government  makes  money  by- 
law, but  it  cannot  force  its  use. 

75.  Honor,  alone,  can  never  be  good  security, 
nor  any,  for  the  payment  of  money.  It  must  be 
coupled  with  abiiiiy  to  pay. 

76.  It  is  the  honor  and  ^/^a'/'/j' of  a  nation  that 
imparts  value  to  its  promises  to  pay.  These  to- 
gether form  the  security  upon  which  its  promises 
rest,  and  depend  for  their  value. 

77.  A  nation's  notes  or  promises  to  pay  money, 
differ  from  private  individual  promises  to  pay,  in 
this  :  If  the  nation  refuse  to  pay,  the  creditor  has 
no  means  by  which  to  force  payment  ;  but,  through 
the  law,  the  creditor  of  a  private  debtor  may  force 
payment. 

78.  Inflation  of  the  current  money  in  the 
country,  if  it  be  all  well  secured  equal  with  the 
security  of  gold  money,  works  evil  only  through  the 
rate  of  interest  it  bears,  and  if  there  was  but  one 
rate  of  interest  established,  too  much  money  could 
not  be. 

79.  There  is  a  great  advantage  in  paper  money 
over  metal  money,  in  this  :  while  the  paper  answers 
every  purpose  as  money  that  metal  does,  the  sub- 
stance which  the  paper  money  represents  and  upon 
which  it  is  dependent  for  its  value,  may  be  produc- 


24 

tive  and  useful  for  other  purposes  ;  whereas,  the 
substance  of  metal  money,  upon  which  its  value 
wholly  or  largely  depends,  can  only  be  used  as 
money  while  it  is  money.  Hence  gold,  silver,  etc., 
are  an  expensive  currency. 

80.  Money  is  purely  a  facility  for  making  ex- 
changes. Can  there  be  too  much  facility  for  doing 
a  lawful  and  laudable  act  ? 

81.  All  money  should  be  full  legal  tender  in 
piiyment  of  all  debts  jxiyable  in  money. 

82.  The  holders  of  U.  S.  bonds  have,  unwit- 
tingly, done  one  thing  for  which  we  might  be 
thankful  ;  they  have  shown  us  how  good  paper 
money  may  be  made.  They  did  not  think  when 
they  were  influencing  our  representatives  to  pass 
the  banking  laws,  for  their  exclusive  use,  that  their 
patent  could  ever  expire.   But  it  will  1     [See  *![  26.] 

83.  Gold,  (5f  a  certain  weight  and  fineness,  is  a 
good  material  out  of  which  to  form  the  standard 
measure  of  value.  Then  fix  the  money  value  of 
that  by  fixing  the  rate  of  interest  it  may  draw,  and 
you  will  have  a  standard  measure  of  value  as  fixed 
and  certain  as  a  straiglit  piece  of  wood  exactly 
three  feet  long,  well  preserved,  and  made  by  law 
the  standard  measure  of  length,  would  be  a  fixed 
and  certain  measure  of  length. 


25 

84.  We  propose  then,  as  a  lemedy  for  the  evil 
which  we  complain  of,  that  the  Cxovernment  make 
its  notes  and  lend  them  to  all  who  apply,  and  give 
good  and  sufficient  security  therefor,  at  a  certain 
annual  rate  of  interest  and  for  so  long  a  time  as  the 
borrower  desires  and  p^ys  the  interest  promptly 
when  due,  and  the  security  holds  good  ;  that  it 
make  said  notes  a  legal  tender  for  the  payment  of 
all  debts  payable  in  money,  when  no  kind  of  mon- 
ey is  expressly  specified  in  the  contract  ;  that  it 
establish  and  fix  said  rate  of  interest  as  the  legal 
rate  of  interest  throughout  the  country,  and  provide 
by  law  that  whoever  lends  money  for  a  higher  or 
lower  rate  of  interest  shall  forfeit  the  whole  sum  he 
has  so  loaned,  to  the  one  to  whom  he  has  loaned 
it;  and  that  it  make  no  more  National  bank-notes 
money. 

So.  To  give  currency  to  a  note  issued  by  the 
government,  it  is  not  necessary  that  it  shall  be  ex- 
pressly or  impliedly  a  promise  to  pay  in  coin. 
That  would  be  a  practical  falsehood  upon  its  face, 
taking  all  the  coin  and  all  the  paper  money  to- 
gether. If  the  gold  dollar  is  retained  as  the  unit  of 
value,  the  promise  should    be    "  The  United  States 

of  America  will  pay  to    Bearer Dollars 

on  demand,    in    gold    money    or    its    equivalent  in 


26 

value  in  lawful  money  of  the  United  States,"  and 
this  note  should  be  declared  lawful  money  and  a 
full  legal  tender  in  payment  of  all  debts  public  and 
private,  when  no  other  money  is  expressly  specified 
by  contract.  Thus  the  Government  would  agree 
to  maintain  its  credit  at  par  with  the  unit  of  value. 

86.  If  men  cry  out,  ^'  this  will  ruin  all  banking 
business  !"  to  them  we  will  answer,  ''  it  will  break 
up  the  dens  of  thieves  !" 

87.  If  men  ask  "  what  will  the  *  capitalists  '  and 
bankers  do  with  their  money  ?' '  we  answer,  ' '  they 
will  lend  it  at  the  same  rate  of  interest  that  the  peo- 
ple, through  their  government,  do,  or  buy  property 
with  it,  which  they  can  use  or  else  lay  out  of  the 
use  of  their  money  as  other  people  do  !" 

88.  We  do  not  propose  to  take  away  the  pro- 
perty of  any  one  without  a  consideration  for  it ;  we 
do  propose  to  withhold  further  bestowal  of  our 
bounty  where  it  is  not  deserved. 

89.  With  an  established,  fixed,  and  unvariable 
rate  of  interest,  there  would  be  no  motive  for 
hoarding  money.  Then  money  would  always  seek 
investment  instead  of  investment  seeking  money 
as  now. 

90.  The  holders  of  U.  S.  bonds  have  been  pro- 
tected in  the  exclusive  right  and  use  of  their  inven- 


27 


tion,  the  National  Banking  System,  for  over  nine- 
teen years  —  longer  than  patents  on  other  inven- 
tions run.  They  have  abused  their  privileges  and 
their  patent  ought  to  be  cancelled. 

91.  We  do  not  propose  to  annul  the  National 
bank  charters  as  a  necessity.  Let  them  compete 
with  the  government  in  bestowing  benefits  upon 
the  people  ;  but  stop  making  their  notes  money. 

92.  If  the  Government  changes  the  rate  of  in- 
terest in  establishing  our  system,  let  Congress  pass 
a  law  providing  that  the  consideration  of  all  con- 
tracts for  payment  of  money,  made  prior  to  the 
time  the  reform  goes  into  effect,  and  in  which  con- 
tracts the  value  of  money  to  be  paid  is  not  specified, 
shall  be  paid  in  money  of  equal  value  to  the  value 
of  the  amount  of  money  agreed  to  be  paid  was  at 
the  time  the  contract  was  made.  Then  no  injustice 
can  be  done  by  the  change.  This  would  not  be  a 
law  impairing  the  spirit  of  the  obligation  of  con- 
tracts. 

93.  Every  time  the  National  Banking  Associ- 
ations change  the  rate  of  interest  they  impair 
not  the  letter,  but  the  spirit  of  the  obligation  of 
contracts. ' 

'94.     The  Government  ought   to  establish  a  cen- 


28 

tral  bank  with  branches  all  over  the  country,  wher- 
ever needed  by  the  people. 

05.  It  will  cost  no  more  to  run  the  Govern- 
ment banks  than  it  does  the  '' National  Banks  " 
and  the  profits  will  go  into  the  U.  S.  Treasury 
where  they  belong. 

96.  The  Government  issues  money  secured  by 
gold  and  silver  (the  security  of  gold  money  is  in 
the  coin  itself,)  why  should  not  it  make  and  issue 
money  on  other  security  not  in  it  J  It  should  !  It 
does  so  in  case  of  the  present  National  Bank  notes. 
Why  not  in  case  of  other  notes  ?  What  gives 
gold,  silver,  government  bonds,  or  the  nation's 
credit  a  right  to  preference  over  all  other  property 
for  security  ? 

97.  The  vital  interest  and  welfare  of  every  man, 
woman  and  c'^ild,  of  every  farmer,  trader, 
manufacturer  and  merchant,  of  every  laborer, 
mechanic,  teacher,  writer,  and  publisher,  oi  every- 
body except  the  money  lender^  will  be  secured  and  im- 
proved by  the  establishment  of  the  banking  system 
herein  proposed. 

98.  The  plan  proposed  in  this  book  is  as 
adaptable  to  every  other  nation  on  earth  as  it  is  to 
ours. 

99.  The  bondholders,  their  hirelings,  and  their 


29 

blind  followers,  will  cry  out  against  this  reform, 
saying  ''it  is  revolution  !"  Yes,  we  admit  it  —  it 
is  revolution  from  chaos  to  order  ! 

100.  On  the  establishmeit  of  a  just  money 
system  depends  the  perpetuity  of  the  Republic. 
Personal  interest  is  the  motive  power  of  commerce. 
It  is  for  the  people  to  determine  whether  the  person- 
al interests  of  a  few  whoissuea  large  ])ortion  of 
the  money  of  this  country  shall  be  the  gauge  by 
which  the  commerce  of  the  country  shall  be 
governed,  or  whether  the  personal  interest  of  every 
individual  under  theGovernment shall  beconsulted. 
With  such  an  issue,  it  seems  impossible  that  the 
matter  can  remain  long  undecided.  Can  any  one 
deny  that  such  an  issue  really  exists  ?  Until  he  can 
reveal  something  besides  the  personal  private 
interest  of  the  National  Banking  Associations  that 
induces  them  to  issue  tlieir  notes  and  to  expand  or 
contract  the  currency,  his  denial  is  but  empty 
words. 

Does  it  ever  occur  that  the  whole  country  is  in 
trouble  for  want  of  postal  facilities  ?  Surely  not. 
AVhy?  Because  the  system  is  managed  by  the 
people  through  their  servants  for  the  interests  of 
all.  Our  money  system  should  be  conducted  in 
the  same  way.     Some  object,    that   it  would  be  too 


30 

great  an  undertaking  for  the  Government  to  manage 
the  loaning  of  money  or,  as  they  put  it,  go  into 
the  banking  business.  This  is  the  most  forcible 
objection  that  can  be  produced  but  it  has  no 
rational  foundation.  If  the  good  of  all  the  people 
demands  it ;  if  justice  demands  it ;  if  national  life 
demands  it ;  if  human  liberty  demands  it,  nothing 
is  too  great  for  Government  to  undertake.  Govern- 
ment is  instituted  for  the  benefit  of  the  governed  : 
when  it  falls  short  of  this,  government  is  worse 
than  useless.  The  battle  of  life  is  an  unequal  con- 
test at  best,  and  it  is  to  restrain  the  strong  from  un- 
due aggression  upon  the  rights  oflthe  weak  that  many 
laws  are  necessary.  How  vicious  then  is  a  law 
which  gives  to  the  strong  new  advantages  over  the 
weak  !  Such  is  a  law  that  gives  to  private  persons 
or  corporations  the  power  to  furnish  a  country  with 
money,  with  no  restraint  except  the  personal 
interests  of  those  persons  or  corporations.  Such  is 
the  state  of  things  in  the  United  States  to-day. 
Any  government  that  strengthens  the  hands  of  the 
strong  against  the  weak  —  the  few  against  the 
many,  is  a  despotism  Avhether  in  name  it  be  democ- 
racy, republic  or  mona:chy. 

No   despotism   was  ever  more    far-reaching  and 
unjust  than  that  of  the   money  ]~)o\ver  of  this  coun- 


31 

try.  I  do  not  assail  the  men  who  have  money  and 
those  who  issue  it  as  possessed  of  more  wicked  and 
cruel  hearts  than  the  rest  of  us.  Personal  interest 
is  the  tyrant  in  them  as  it  would  be  in  us  if  we 
were  in  their  places.  What  I  assail  is  the  policy 
of  government  that  fosters  the  personal  interests  of 
a  few  to  the  injury  of  all  the  rest.  Such  has  been 
and  is  the  policy  of  this  Government.  While  we 
preserve  the  forms  of  representative  government 
we  are  actually  ruled  by  a  moneyed  oligarchy. 
We  may  congratulate  ourselves  that  we  have  still 
the  recognized  right  to  shape  the  legislation  of  this 
country.  Will  we  content  ourselves  with  the  pos- 
session of  that  right  and  not  exercise  it  ? 

We  have  the  choice  between  sovereignty  and 
slavery.  The  prerogative  of  sovereignty  will  be 
exercised  in  this  country.  It  is  for  us  to  say 
whether  we  as  a  people  shall  exercise  it,  or  delegate 
it  to  others  to  be  used  for  their  advantage  and  our 
ruin.  It  is  our  duty  and  it  is  for  our  interest  to 
lay  aside  party  fealty  and  party  prejudice  and  unite 
as  one  man  in  the  work  of  electing  a  Congress  that 
will  be  loyal  to  their  sovereign,  and  enact  such 
laws  as  shall  preserve  equal  justice  to  all  the  people. 


APPENDIX. 


The  author  respectfully  submits  the  following 
quotations,  in  support  of  some  of  the  ideas  ad- 
vanced in  this  book. 

At  this  very  time,  (about  1770)  even  the  silver  money 
in  England  is  obliged  to  the  legal  tender  for  a  part  of  it? 
value.  BenjamiJi  Franklin. 


Bank  paper  must  be  suppressed,  and  the  circulating  me- 
dium must  be  restored  to  the  Nation  to  whom  it  belongs 
.^  .  .  .  .  It  is  literally  true  that  the  toleration  of 
bnnks  of  paper  discount,  costs  the  United  States  one  half  of 
their  war  taxes,  or  in  other  words,  doubles  the  expenses  of 
every   war.  Thomas  Jefferson  in   1813. 


It  is    however,    essential    to    every     modification  of  the 
finances    that   the   benefits    of  a  uniform  national  currency 

should     be    restored    to     the     community 

There  is  only  wanting  to  the  fiscal  prosperity  of  the  Ciovern- 
ment    the  j-estoration   of  a   uniform   medium   of  exchange 

for   the   interests  of  the  community    at- 

large  as  well  as  for  the  purposes  of  the  Treasury,  it  is  es- 
sential that  the  Nation  should  possess  a  currency  of  equal 
value  credit  and  use,  wherever  it  may  circulate.  The  Con- 
stitution has  intrusted  Congress  exclusively  with  the  power 
of  creating  and  regulating  a  currency  of  that  description. 
James   Madison  in  1815-1816. 


A  bank  of  the  United  States  is,  in  many  respects,  con- 
venient for  the  Government  and  useful  to  the  people 
That  a  bank  of  the  United  States    compe- 


33 

tent  to  do  all  the  duties  which  may  be  required  by  the 
Government,  might  be  so  organized  as  not  to  infringe  on 
our  own    delegated   powers,    or   the  reserved  rights  of  the 

Itates,  I  do  not  entertain  a  doubt. 

When  to  this  it  is  added,  that  the  bills  are  not  only 
receivable  everywhere  in  Government  dues,  but  that  the 
Government  itself  would  be  bound  for  their  ultimate  redemp- 
tion, no  rational  doubt  can  exist,  that  the  paper  which  the 
exchequer  would  furnish,  would  readily  enter  into  general 
circulation,  and  be  maintained  at  all  times  at  or  above  par 
with    gold  and  silver,  thereby   realizing    the  great  want  of 

the  age  and  fulfilling  the  wishes  of  the  people 

The  whole  matter  of  the  currency  would  have  been  placed 
where  by  the  Consitution  it  was  designed  to  be  placed  — 
under   the    immediate   supervision   and  control  of  Congress 

The  same  eye  which  rests    unceasingly  on 

the  specie  currency,  and  guards  it  against  adulteration, 
would  also  have  rested  on  the  paper  currency,  to  control 
and  regulate  its  issue  and  protect  it  against  depreciation. 
The  same  reason  which  would  forbid  Congress  from  parting 
with  the  power  over  the  coinage  would  seem  to  operate 
with  nearly  ecjual  force  in  regard  to  any  substitution  for 
the  precious  metals  in  the  form  of  a  circulating  medium. 
John  Tyler,  in  1841  and  15^43. 


The  Government  ought  not  to  delegate  this  power  if  it 
could.  It  was  too  great  a  power  to  be  trusted  to  any  bank- 
ing company  whatever,  or  to  any  authority  but  the  highest 
and  most  responsible    which    was    known    to    our  form  of 

Government The  Government  itself 

ceases  to   be  indejiendent ;    it   ceases   to    be    safe  when  the 

national  currency  is  at  the  will  of  a  company 

All  property  is  at  their  mercy.  The  price  of  real  estate,  of 
every  growing,  crop,  of  every  staple  article  in  the  market, 
is  at  their  command.     Stocks   are   their    playthings  —  their 

imbling  theat:e,  on  which  they  gamble  daily  with  as  little 


34 


secrecy  and   as   little   morality,  and    far    more    mischief  to 
fortunes  than  common  gamblers  carry  on  their  operations. 
Thos.  H.  Benton,  U.  S.  S.  about  1838. 


Congress,  as  the  Legislature  of  a  sovereign  nation,  being 
expressly  empowered  by  the  Constitution  "  to  lay  and  col- 
lect taxes,  to  pay  debts,  and  to  provide  for  the  common  de- 
fence and  general  welfare  of  the  United  States,"  and  "to 
borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  United  States  "  and  to 
coin  money  and  regulate  the  value  thereof  and  of  foreign 
coin,"  and  being  clearly  authorized,  as  incidental  to  the 
exercise  of  those  great  powers  to  emit  bills  of  credit,  to 
charter  national  banks,  and  to  provide  a  national  currency 
for  the  whole  people,  in  the  form  of  coin,  Treasury  notes, 
and  National  bank  bills,  and  the  power  to  make  the  notes 
of  the  Government  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  private 
debts,  being  one  of  the  powers  belonging  to  sovereignty  in 
other  civilized  nations,  and  not  expressly  withheld  from 
Congress  by  the  Constitution,  we  are  irresistibly  impelled 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  impressing  upon  the  Treasury 
notes  of  the  United  States,  the  quality  of  being  a  legal  ten- 
der in  payment  of  private  debts,  is  an  appropriate  means, 
conducive  and  plainly  adapted  to  the  execution  of  the  un- 
doubted powers  of  Congress,  consistent  with  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  therefore,  within  the  mean- 
ing of  that  instrument  •*  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying 
into  execution  the  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States."  Such  being  our  con- 
clusion in  matter  of  law,  the  question  whether  at  any  par- 
ticular time,  in  war  or  in  peace,  the  exigency  is  such  by  rea- 
son of  unusual  and  pressing  demands  on  the  resources  of  the 
government,  or  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  suj^ply  of  gold  and 
silver  coin  to  furnish  the  currency  needed  for  the  uses  of 
the  government,  and  of  the  people,  that  it  is,  as  matter  of 
fact,  wise  and  expedient  to  resort  to  this  means  is  a  political 
question  to  be  determined  by  Congress,  when  the  question 
of  exigency  arises,  and  not  a  judicial  question  to  be  after- 
ward passed  upon  by  the  Courts. 

Extract  from  opinion  of  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  in  case  of 
Juilliard  vs.  Greenman. 


VALUES  AND  MONEY. 


I 


A  LECTURE  BY  A.  H.   LOW. 

A  theory  to  be  worthy  of  notice  must  be  founded 
upon  one  or  more  facts.  The  comparison  of  wis- 
dom of  two  men,  the  one  of  whom  built  his  house 
upon  the  sand  and  the  other  who  built  his  upon  the 
rock,  is  parallel  to  that  of  a  man  who  founds  his 
theories  upon  imaginary  existence  of  a  thing  and 
one  who  founds  his  upon  the  thing  itself.  Now 
there  are  two  kinds  of  facts  —  facts  that  are  self- 
evident  or  such  as  require  no  argument  to  make 
them  believed  or  understood,  and  facts  that  are 
so  concealed  from  view  by  the  interposition  of  other 
facts  that  they  cannot  be  seen  at  once,  but  must  be 
first  uncovered  and  stripped  of  their  surroundings 
before  they  can  be  recognized. 

It  is  my  purpose  here  to  call  attention  to  certain 
elements,  which  go  to  make  up  value  ;  to  determine 
what  is  "^alue,  and  distinguish  between  value  in  the 
abstract  and  commercial  value  —  to  show  how  value 
is  attached  to  money  and  how  it  may  be  limited 
there  so  as  to  make  the  value  of  money  an  unvari- 
able  measufe  of  the  value  of  all  things  for  sale. 

Webster   defines   value  to  be  :    the   property  or 


36 


properties  of  a  thing  which  render  it  useful ;  or  the 
degree  of  such  property  or  properties.  As  familiar 
objects  possessing  value  to  mankind,  I  will  mention 
air,  water,  light  of  the  sun,  etc.  These  are  things 
of  inestimable  value  to  man  because  his  very  exis- 
tence depends  upon  them.  Deprive  him  of  either 
of  these  and  he  cannot  live.  Yet  I  have  seen  it 
laid  down  as  a  fact  in  a  book  in  use  in  our  com- 
mon schools  that  air  has  no  value  because  it  is  un- 
limited in  supply  !  If  value  is  the  property  or  pro- 
perties of  a  thing  which  render  it  useful,  I  hold  it 
to  be  self-evident  that  usefulness  determines  its 
value,  and  degree  of  usefulness,  its  degree  of  value. 

There  are  things  which  are  useful  to  man  yet  not 
indispensable.  A  horse,  carriage,  steam-engine, 
sail-vessel  or  money,  are  of  the  things  useful  to 
man,  for  each  and  all  may  add  to  his  happiness  and 
comfort,  yet  they  are  none  of  them  indispensable 
to  him,  for  he  may  live  and  be  comfortable  and 
happy  without  them. 

It  is  evident  then,  that  those  things  which  are  of 
most  value  to  us  are  most  bountifully  provided  and 
cost  us  least  to  obtain. 

But  the  Creator  has  so  formed  us  and  surrounded 
us  with  such  conditions  that  but  few  things  which 
go  to    make   up    the    sum    even    of  our  needs,  and 


37 


much  less  our  wants,  are  at  our  disposal  except  on 
condition  that  we  put  forth  our  own  efforts  and  la- 
bors to  obtain  tliem,  and  it  is  from  this  fact  that 
has  arisen  the  distinction  of  values,  or  the  abstract, 
intrinsic  value  of  things  and  the  commercial  value 
of  things. 

If  each  individual  by  his  own  exertions  procured 
from  nature  only  what  his  necessities  demanded, 
there  could  be  no  commerce  in  products,  and  were 
each  individual  able  to  so  procure  all  his  necessi- 
ties and  wants  demanded,  there  would  be  no  need 
of  commerce  in  products,  but  mankind  as  a  whole 
is  so  fashioned  that  no  one  without  the  assistance 
of  the  rest  can  provide  himself  with  even  the  abso- 
lute necessaries  of  life.  We  are  created  with  di- 
verse talents  and  abilities,  and  it  is  from  these 
characteristics  of  man  that  commerce  in  commo- 
dities or  products  arises.  We  may  say  then  that 
commerce  in  commodities  is  a  providential  neces- 
sity. Yet  commerce  is  the  work  of  man.  The 
Creator  made  man  ;  imposed  on  him  the  necessity 
of  exertion  to  the  end  that  he  might  live,  and 
endowed  him  with  the  talents  necessary  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  that  end,  and  commerce  is  the 
institution  of  man  arising  out  of  those  necessities 
and  the  exercise  of  those  talents. 


38 

All  writers  on  history  or  political  economy  agree, 
that  the  commerce  of  the  world  to-day  is  immensely 
more  adapted  to  the  wants  ot  man  than  that  of  even 
a  thousand  years  ago,  and  that  the  machinery  of 
commerce  has  been  undergoing  improvement  and 
change  since  the  advent  of  man,  to  suit  the  de- 
mands ofhis  improved  state  of  developement  in 
civilization  and  enlightenment.  It  is  also  generally 
agreed,  that  the  first  stage  of  commerce  consisted 
of  barter,  or  the  exchange  of  one  thing  of  use  and 
limited  in  supply  for  another,  also  of  use  and 
limited  in  supply.  As  for  example,  where  A.  who 
had  raised  or  obtained  more  wheat  than  he  needed, 
exchanged  hig  surplus  for  meat  of  which  he  had  not 
sufficient  with  B.  who  had  procured  more  meat 
than  he  needed,  who  exchanged  his  surplus  of  meat 
for  A.'s  surplus  of  wheat  which  he  needed.  Yet  ex- 
change is  the  basis  of  commerce.  Nay,  it  is  com- 
merce itself. 

At  this  stage  of  commerce,  it  requires  no  great 
play  of  the  imagination  to  see  the  cumbersome 
working  of  the  machinery,  and  that  it  might  occur 
that  a  man  might  be  compelled  to  make  many  ex- 
changes before  he  parted  with  all  his  surplus  for 
what  would  supply  his  needs.  lie  must  seek 
another  one  who  wanted  what  he  had  and  had  what 


39 


I 


he  wanted,  and  that  in  just  the  right  proportion,  or 
he  must  part  with  wliat  he  did  not  want,  for  other 
things  he  did  not  want  thereby  to  increase  his 
variety  of  articles  in  hopes  of  being  able  the  better 
to  exchange  for  what  he  did  want,  and  in  the  right 
proportion.  But  this  was  not  his  only  difficulty, 
everything  that  man  produced  which  was  of  use 
had  a  value.  That  value  was  in  degree  equal  to  its 
supply  and  use,  and  its  commercial  value  was  de- 
termined by  its  supply  and  its  demand  for  use. 
Observe  now  that  I  say  demand  for  use.  A  thing 
may  be  useful  in  itself,  but  if  that  usefulness  is  not 
known  to  man,  there  will  be  no  demand  for  it, 
Hence  when  we  speak  of  commercial  value,  we 
mean  the  pro])erty  or  properties  of  a  useful  thing 
of  limited  supply  and  in  demand,  or  that  the  value 
of  the  thing  is  governed  by  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand. 

In  the  absence  of  a  standard  measure  of  value  it 
was  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  determine  when 
an  exchange  was  made,  whether  it  was  made  on  just 
and  equitable  terms  or  not.  How  was  A.  who  ii  id 
a  measure  of  wheat  to  exchange  for  salt,  to  know 
how  many  measures  of  salt  he  should  receive  for  it? 

Now  the  exponent  of  one  class  of  political 
economists  will  reply,   "  he  will  calculate  the  num- 


40 

ber  of  days'  labor  each  cost  and  judge  by  that." 
But  suppose  that  the  amount  of  labor  each  article 
cost  was  to  be  the  standard  of  value  and  one 
article  was  in  greater  demand  for  use  than  the 
other,  would  labor  be  a  just  standard  then  ?  Sup- 
pose again  that  the  salt  manufacturer  had  expend- 
ed his  labor  with  wisdom,  obtaining  thereby  the 
greatest  returns  for  his  exertions,  and  the 
wheat  producer  had  foolishly  done  all  his  work  the 
hardest  way,  thereby  receiving  the  smallest  returns 
for  it,  would  the  days'  labor  then  be  a  fair  standard 
of  the  value  of  their  products,  and  if  so,  the  labor 
of  which  will  we  take  for  the  standard  ?  And  if 
you  say  neither  but  the  average  of  both,  how  shall 
wi  determine  that  average?  To  extricate  com- 
merce from  the  embarrassment- here  disclosed,  man 
could  not  have  been  long  in  devising  something  to 
act  as  a  measure  of  value,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  what  a  variety  of  things  have  been  adopted  for 
that  purpose  ;  for  history  tells  us,  that  animals,  the 
barks  of  trees,  leather,  iron,  tobacco,  copper, 
shells,  silver,  gold,  p-iper,  and  almost  everything 
known  to  commerce,  has  at  one  time  or  another 
been  used  as  a  standard  of  value,  under  the  general 
name  of  money. 

Why  has  there  been    so    much  ex[)erimenting  in 


41 

this  matter  of  a  standard  measure  of  value?  —  l>ut 
here  another  })hilosopher  calls  me  to  order  by- 
denying  that  money  is  the  measure  of  value  !  If 
not,  what  is?  I  agree  that  it  is  not  and  never  has 
been  a  just,  unvariable  measure  of  value,  but  it  is, 
and  has  been  the  only  measure  of  value  for  things 
saleable  or  for  sale  that  man  has  ever  invented. 
Take  a  single  instance  for  illustration  :  A.  has 
more  butter  than  he  needs  and  less  sugar  ;  B.  has 
more  sugar  and  less  butter ;  A.  does  not  go  to  B.  un- 
informed of  the  market  price  of  butter  and  sugar 
and  propose  an  exchange  of  his  butter  for  B.'s  su- 
gar, weight  for  weight,  but  he  ascertains  how  much 
money  his  butter  and  B.'s  sugar  are  worth  per 
pound,  and  then  if  more  convenient  to  exchange 
with  B.  than  to  sell  his  butter  in  the  market  for 
the  money  and  afterwards  go  to  B.  with  the  pro- 
ceeds of  his  butter  in  money,  he  says  to  B.  <'  but- 
ter is  worth  so  much  money  per  pound,  and  I 
learn  that  sugar  is  worth  so  much  per  pound  in  mon- 
ey. Then  they  ascertain  the  money  value  of  each  lot 
by  multiplying  the  price  per  pound  by  the  number  of 
pounds  and  make  their  exchange  upon  the  basis 
of  the  values  so  ascertained.  Then,  since  the  value 
of  each  article  has  been  compared  with  the  value 
of  money,  and  the   exchange    made  according  to 


42 

the  result  of  that  comparison,  has  not  the  value 
of  the  money  acted  as  the  measure  of  the  value 
of  each?  But  money,  although  it  has  always  been 
used  as  a  measure  of  value,  has  itself  been  of  uncer- 
tain value.  We  have  seen  that  a  thing  to  be  of 
value  must  be  of  use.  That  to  be  of  commercial 
value  it  must  be  limited  in  supply  as  well  as  to 
be  of  use.  It  follows  that,  with  a  given  supply, 
an  increase  or  decline  in  demand  increases  or 
lessens  the  commercial  value,  and  with  a  given  de- 
mand an  increase  or  decline  in  supply  lessens  or 
increases  the  commercial  value. 

And  now  I  am  ready  to,  and  do  assert  that  the 
same  rule  applies  to  money,  with  the  same  force 
that  it  does  to  all  other  articles  of  commerce, 
and  it  is  from  this  fact,  that  money  as  it  has 
been  and  is,  is  not  an  unvariable  measure  of 
value  We  must  not  confound  the  value  of  money, 
with  the  thing  money.  Money  may  have  a  nomi- 
nal value  and  yet  not  be  current  in  commerce  for 
want  of  actual  value.  Money  can  be  used  as  a 
measure  of  value,  (however  imperfectly)  while  it 
has  or  represents  value,  but  when  it  becomes 
valueless,  it  is  useless  as  a  measure. 

Money  may  be  established  in  two  ways: — By 
common  consent  and    usage  among  the  people,  or 


I 


43 

by  law  enacted  by  or  through  the  sovereign  power 
in  a  State  or  nation.  Whatever  is  used  as  a  stan- 
dard measure  of  commercial  value,  and  a  medium 
of  exchange,  is  money  in  essence  whether  it  be 
so  in  name  or  not.  So  it  is  not  the  material  of 
which  it  is  composed  but  the  functions  which  it 
possesses  that  makes  it  money,  and  since  it  is  the 
law  merchant  or  law  statute  that  confers  upon  it 
these  functions,  we  say  law  makes  the  money. 
It  is  from  this  fact  that  many  have  concluded  that 
statute  law  also  gives  money  all  its  value.  I  be- 
lieve I  shall  be  able  to  show  that  this  is  a  mistaken 
theory.  I  think  I  have  shown  you  that  there  is  an 
inexorable  law  which  governs  commercial  values  — 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  —  and  that  money  is 
subject  to  that  law.  I  will  give  you  the  key  to  that 
law  :  it  is  personal  interest.  Personal  interest  is 
the  motive  power  of  commerce.  Take  from  it  this 
element,  and  you  rob  it  of  its  very  life. 

But  money  is  not  only  a  measure  of  value,  but  it 
is  a  medium  of  exchange.  It  may  perform  the 
functions  of  a  measure  of  value,  by  comparison,  with- 
out acting  as  a  medium  of  exchange  —  for  it  acts  as 
a  medium  of  exchaijge  only  wlien  it  is  itself  ex- 
changed for  something  else.  The  money  in  this  coun- 
try does  not  change  hands,   nor  any  portion  of  it. 


44 

every  time  an  exchange  of  commodities  is  made. 
Yet  every  exchange  of  commodities  is  made  by 
comparing  the  values  of  those  commodities  with 
the  value  of  money. 

I  will  not  insult  your  intelligence  by  entering 
upon  an  elaborate  explanation  of  how  money  acts 
as  a  medium  of  exchange.  Its  necessity  for  that 
purpose  and  its  function  of  such  a  medium  are  self- 
evident  to  us  all. 

It  is  less  evident  however,  what  gives  money  its 
value.  But  we  have  already  seen  that  all  com- 
mercial values  are  governed  by  supply  and  demand. 
Let  us  consider  then,  the  simple  thing  gold,  separa- 
ted from  its  native  quartz,  which  we  all  know  to  be 
of  limited  supply  and  of  use,  hence,  is  of  commer- 
cial value.  We  know  its  supply  is  uneven  or  vari- 
able, so  is  its  demand  for  use  ;  hence,  its  commer- 
cial value  is  vaiied  by  change  either  in  supply  or 
demand,  when  there  is  not  a  corresponding  change 
in  the  other. 

But  if  its  supply  were  always  in  the  same  ratio 
to,  but  less  than  its  demand,  its  commercial  value 
would  remain  fixed  and  unvariable.  Now  when 
gold  was  first  employed  as  a  medium  of  exchange 
unless  its  supply  was  simultaneously  increased  to 
exactly  equal    its    increased    demand  for  this  new 


45 

use,  the  value  of  the  gold  then  in  the  control  of 
man  was  immensely  increased,  and  it  was  this  in- 
crease of  value  which  the  law  making  gold  a  medi- 
um of  exchange,  gave  to  gold.  The  supply  being 
the  same  the  law  gave  it  a  riew  use,  thereby  adding 
a  new  value  to  it,  and  this  is  the  only  sense  in 
which  the  law  creates  values,  and  yet,  unaided  by 
the  law  of  personal  interest  of  those  needing  a 
medium  of  exchange,  that  law  could  not  add  one 
particle  to  the  value  of  the  gold.  If  the  law  had 
the  effect  to  increase  the  use,  it  increased  the  value ; 
but  those  who  make  exchanges  are  the  powers 
which  decide  whether  a  thing  called  money  by  law 
shall  be  used  by  entering  into  their  transactions. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  now  to  go  into  specu- 
lation as  to  what  was  first  adopted  by  man  as  a 
measure  of  value  and  medium  of  exchange,  or  what 
improvements  in  the  machinery  of  commerce  led  to 
the  displacement  of  that  by  another  and  that  by 
still  another  and  another,  until  it  has  arrived  to  the 
materials  now  most  generally  in  use,  as  silver,  gold 
and  paper  securities,  which  we  call  paper  money. 
Undoubtedly  the  adaptability  of  each  article  em- 
ployed over  those  which  preceded  it,  led  to  its 
adoption  in  its  time,  and  that  none  of  them  has 
been  universally  and  singly  employed  for  any  con- 


46 

siderable  length  of  time,  is  abundant  proof  that 
none  has  thus  far  been  free  of  objections.  And  as 
it  is  easier  to  state  a  case  actually  existing  than  to 
imagine  and  state  one  parallel  to  it,  I  will  leave 
the  dead  past  to  bury  its  dead  and  use  existing 
facts  and  examples  to  base  my  further  observations 
upon. 

To-day  in  this  country,  as  in  Great  Britain  and 
many  other  countries,  gold  is  adopted  as  the  ma- 
terial possessing  commercial  value,  best  fitted  for 
use  as  a  standard  measure  of  the  values  of  all  other 
articles  of  commerce.  Silver  preceded  gold  in  this 
use,  and  is  still  the  standard  in  many  countries  and 
in  nearly  all  is  used  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  We 
have  also  what  we  call  minor  coins  or  base  metal 
currency,  all  of  which  possess  in  themselves  intrin- 
sic value  but  in  widely  varying  degrees.  Notwith- 
standing the  difference  in  intrinsic  value  of  these 
several  species  of  coins  from  gold  down,  each  and 
every  one  passes  current  at  its  nominal  value  and 
equally  assist  in  proportion  to  their  nominal  value 
in  facilitating  exchanges  and  measuring  values. 

Now  does  not  this  seem  paradoxical  in  view  of 
the  facts  which  we  have  noticed  ?  Yet  the  fact  is 
easily  explained.  Gold  has  an  intrinsic  and  com- 
mercial value,  resulting  from  i's  limited  supply  and 


47 

its  use  in  the  arts  and  in  money.  The  people  have 
declared  through  their  laws  that  23.22  grains  of 
pure  gold  coined  into  a  dollar  piece  of  25.8  grains 
shall  be  the  unit  of  value.  And  to  make  the  com- 
mercial value  of  all  the  coined  money  equal  to  its 
nominal  value,  the  government  coins  all  the  metal 
money,  issues  it  to  the  people  at  its  nominal  value 
in  exchange  for  services  or  other  things  of  com- 
mercial value,  and  agrees  by  its  laws  to  redeem  the 
silver  ^nd  minor  coins  in  gold  coin  of  the  standard 
value. 

There  is  then  this  distinction  between  gold  coin 
and  all  the  rest.  Gold  coin  carries  with  it  only 
that  value  which  is  determined  by  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand  for  the  gold  in  it,  while  each  of 
the  other  coins  carries  with  it  not  only  the  value 
determined  by  the  supply  and  demand  of  the  ma- 
terial in  it,  but  the  value  of  a  credit  which  is  at- 
Ptached  to  it  to  equal  the  difference  between  its 
otherwise  commercial  value  and  that  of  its  nominal 
value  in  gold.  This  fact,  that  silver  and  the  minor 
I^Jcoins  pass  current  among  the  people  at  their  nomi- 
nal value  equally  with  gold  coin  is  cited  by  another 
school  of  political  economists  as  an  overwhelming 
proof  that  it  is  the  law  that  gives  money  its  value, 
In'^d  hence  all  that    the    law-making  power  needs  to 


48 

do  to  make  good  valuable  current  money  is  to  say 
a  thing  shall  be  money  without  condition  or  re- 
striction, and  it  will  become  so,  and  possessing 
whatever  value  the  law  prescribes,  but  believe  me, 
nothing  can  be  more  chimerical. 

It  does  prove  that  credit  is  an  article  of  commerce, 
and  when  credit  is  of  that  quality  that  it  is  in  equal 
supply  and  demand  as  gold  coin,  it  will  be  of 
equal  commercial  value.  If  the  law-makers  could 
create  money  and  affix  its  commercial  value  by  the 
simple  word  and  act  of  stamping  an  otherwise 
valueless  thing,  without  any  pledge  or  guarantee  to 
preserve  and  maintain  that  value,  it  could  prac- 
tically annul  the  inexorable  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, by  supplying  such  money  to  an  unlimited 
amount  while  there  is  a  limited  demand. 

But  what  is  credit  ?  Webster  defines  it  as  expec- 
tation of  future  payment  for  property  transferred 
or  promises  given.  History  leads  us  to  believe 
that  the  compounding  the  value  of  a  credit  with 
the  value  of  a  piece  of  metal  coined  into  money  as 
a  medium  of  exchange  was  not  known  to  the 
ancients  but  is  of  comparative  modern  invention, 
which  was  like  every  other  invention  the  fruit  of 
necessity.  As  commerce  has  grown  among  men, 
the  medium    of  exchange   has   been    improved  to 


49 


meet  its  increased  demand,  and  for  the  same  rea- 
son we  have  at  this  age  of  the  world  another  kind 
of  medium  of  exchange  carrying  with  it  practically 
nothing  of  commercial  value  except  that  of  credit ; 
I  speak  of  paper  money. 

Paper  money  was  invented  to  answer  a  demand 
of  commerce  almost  as  imperative  as  that  which 
led  to  the  invention  of  money  in  its  primitive 
form.  A  need  existed  for  an  increased  facility  for 
making  exchanges,  which  the  money  then  in  use, 
and  the  material  of  which  it  was  made  was  in- 
adequate in  supply,  and  silver  and  gold  exhausted 
the  list  of  known  commodities  possessing  in  them- 
selves commercial  value  and  the  other  necessary 
requirements  of  money,  such  as  divisibility,  porta- 
bility and  durability,  and  when  commerce  had  out- 
grown these  commodities  in  their  use  for  money, 
necessity  pointed  to  credit,  or  paper  money.  Now 
as  I  am  discussing  facts,  let  me  analyze  paper 
money  and  see  on  what  actual  existing  facts  its 
utility  is  founded.  We  all  know  it  has  utility,  for  it 
is  in  use,  and  reason  tells  us  if  it  were  not  sustained 
by  pre-existing  facts,  it  could  not  so  admirably 
answer  the  purpose  for  which  it  was   invented. 

It  is  admitted  by  all  logicians  to  be  a  self-evident 
fact,    that    two    things    which    are   each  equal  to  a 


50 


third  are  equal  to  each  other  and  it  is  a  fundamen- 
tal rule  of  law  that  whatsoever  a  man  does  by  his 
agent  or  representative  he  does  by  himself.  Credit 
we  have  seen  is  the  expectation  of  future  paymen^ 
for  property  transferred  or  promises  given.  That 
is  credit  in  its  commercial  sense,  and  in  the  sense 
in  which  it  is  used  in  money.  A  piece  of  current 
paper  money  as  you  all  know  bears  upon  its  face  a 
promise  to  pay  a  certain  sum  of  money.  Now  to 
what  does  that  promise  relate  ?  Does  it  mean  that 
the  one  who  issued  it  agrees  to  pay  it  by  giving 
another  like  it  in  exchange  for  that  ?  By  no  means. 
It  is  an  engagement  on  the  part  of  the  one  who 
issued  it  with  the  holder,  that  on  demand  of  the 
holder,  he  will  redeem  it  by  giving  in  exchange  for 
it  something  which  has  in  itself  intrinsic  and  com- 
mercial value,  equal  to  its  face  as  compared  with 
the  standard  unit  of  value. 

It  is  the  faith  that  the  people  have  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  this  promise,  which  gives  this  form  of 
money  its  commercial  value.  The  credit  is  foun- 
ded upon  the  knowledge  or  belief  that  the  one  who 
made  the  promise  is  and  will  be  able  to  fulfill  it, 
and  will  do  so  on  demand. 

This  paper  then  is  the  representative  or  agent  of 
the  value  of  the  thing   which   secures  its  payn-!Cl^^. 


51 

It  is  equal  in  value  to  the  thing  which  is  pledged 
for  it,  for  it  is  exchangeable  for  it.  We  have  next 
to  see  how  its  value  is  determined. 

I  have  said  that  a  gold  dollar  piece  is  by  law  the 
unit  of  value.  We  determine  the  value  of  paper 
money  by  comparing  the  value  of  the  thing  which 
secures  it  with  the  unit  of  value.  Then  it  is  clear 
that  if  we  find  that  the  security  can  be  exchanged 
for  the  unit  of  value,  to  equal  the  face  value  of  the 
piece  of  paper  money  which  it  secures,  the  paper 
money  and  the  unit  of  value  must  be  equal  in  com- 
mercial value. 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  of  money,  when  left 
subject  only  to  the  commercial  law,  except  the 
adoption  of  a  peculiar  unit  of  value  in  this  coun- 
try. Had  this  unit  not  been  fixed  by  the  National 
law,  it  or  sonie  other  would  have  been  adopted  by 
commercial  law,  and  it  is  of  national  importance 
that  it  should  be  well  known  and  universally  con- 
formed to  that  it  has  been  so  established. 

It  is  of  equally  national  importance  that  the 
money  of  the  country  should  be  equal  in  value 
throughout  the  country,  for  the  obvious  reason  that 
it  is  or  carries  with  it  the  measure  of  commercial 
value. 

For   these    reasons,    our    forefathers    in  erecting 


52 


this  republic,  imposed  on  the  National  legislature 
the  power  to  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  there- 
of and  of  foreign  coin  and  fix  the  standards  of 
weights  and  measures,  and  prohibited  to  the  States 
the  right  to  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  a 
legal  tender. 

From  that  time  at  least,  nothing  has  been  money 
which  has  not  been  made  so  by  the  highest  law  in 
the  land  ;  for  the  power  to  issue  money  was 
not  only  vested,  but  exclusively  vested  in  the 
National  Government,  and  now  all  symbols  of 
money,  which  have  not  been  legalized  by  the 
government,  are  spurious,  and  subject  those  using 
it  to  severe  penalties. 

Great  power  over  money  is  thus  centralized  in 
the  government,  and  centralization  of  power  is 
centralization  of  responsibility. 

Is  our  money  system  perfect  ?  Verily  no  !  For 
want  of  the  exercise  of  rightful  authority  over  it, 
our  system,  while  it  is  in  some  points  in  advance 
of  the  old,  still  lacks  in  a  few  of  the  most  vital 
essentials.  First,  it  \'s,  z.  variable  measure  of  value. 
Second,  its  supply  is  delegated  to  private  persons 
or  corporations  whose  personal  interests  alone  regu- 
late its  supply,  and  hence  is  never  supplied  to  meet 
the  just  demands  of  the  commerce  of  the  country. 


63 


I  believ^e  you  will  all  now  agree  with  me  that  money 
is  the  measure  of  commercial  values,  and  that  that 
measure  ought  also  to  be  the  medium  of  exchange, 
and  that  in  every  system  of  measure  there  must  be 
a  unit  of  that  measure,  hence,  there  should  be  a 
unit  of  value,  to  which  the  value  of  all  the  measures 
of  value  should  be  made  to  relate  and  conform. 
This  is  simply  admitting  that  so  far  our  present 
money  system  is  correct.  We  have  an  established 
unit  of  value  and  the  value  of  all  the  other  money 
of  the  country  is  made  to  equal  the  value  of  that 
unit  in  proportion  to  its  nominal  value.  So  far,  so 
good.  But  here  let  me  ask,  what  regulates  the  value 
of  our  unit  of  value,  the  gold  dollar?  I  have  the 
true  answer  to  that  question.  It  is  the  same  law  of 
supply  and  demand  which  regulates  the  value  of 
every  other  article  of  commerce. 

With  a  given  supply  the  use  of  money  has  been 
greater  at  one  time  than  another ;  and  with  a  given 
supply,  we  have  seen  a  variation  in  use  creates  a 
variation  in  value  ;  and  also  that  with  a  given  use 
a  variation  in  supply  creates  a  variation  in  value. 
You  are  all  so  familiar  with  the  expressions  **  mon- 
ey is  scarce,"  *' money  is  plenty,"  ''money  is 
worth  4  per  cent. , "  ' '  money  is  worth  1 2  per  cent. , ' ' 


54 

that  I  need  not  go  into  elaborate  illustration  of  this 
point. 

Money  has  two  legitimate  functions,  the  need  of 
which  brought  it  into  being,  and  which  ought  to 
govern  it  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  every  other  con- 
sideration. Those  are,  a  medium  of  exchange, 
and  a  measure  of  value.  To  perform  these  func- 
tions, it  should  always  be  stable^  unvariable  and 
fixed  in  value,  to  secure  which  it  must  always  be 
supplied  in  uniform  proportion  to  its  demand. 
When  have  these  objects  been  attained  ?  Never  ! 
Never  !  Never  I 

The  only  gauge  we  have  by  which  we  can  de- 
termine the  relative  value  of  money  one  day  from 
another,  is  the  rate  of  interest  it  will  bring  in  the 
money  market,  and  unless  you  can  point  me  to  a 
period  in  the  history  of  the  world  when  money 
would  draw  a  certain  fixed  unvariable  rate  of 
interest,  day  after  day,  month  after  month,  and 
year  after  year,  you  cannot  point  me  to  an  unvari- 
able measure  of  value.  You  cannot  do  it.  On  the 
contrary,  this  first  essential  in  all  commercial  trans- 
actions is  and  has  always  been  most  highly  sensi- 
tive to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  and  in 
the  power  of  Shylock,  the  extortioner,  has  been  a 
merciless  weapon  applied    to  the  back  of  toiling 


55 

humanity,  and  has  time  out  of  mind  laised  the 
vagrant  or  base  robber  to  the  exalted  estate  of  a 
king  and  debased  the  royal  worker  to  the  estate  of 
a  slave.  That  which  was  invented  as  a  helper  in 
the  struggle  of  humanity  for  earthly  existence  has 
been  left  unprotected  from  the  evil  influences  of 
imi)roper  control  until  it  has,  not  from  its  nature 
but  from  its  control,  been  stigmatized,  the  root 
of  all  evil. 

Am  I  not  stating  facts  ?  Do  not  the  evils  exist  ? 
Is  there  no  need  of  improvement  in  our  money 
system  ? 

If  there  is  need,  who  can  say  that  need  cannot 
be  supplied?  I  pray  you,  pardon  my  seeming  pre- 
sumption when  I  assert  that  the  evils  which  I  have 
mentioned  do  exist,  and  that  their  remedy  is  with- 
in our  reach. 

While  gold  coin  is  the  material  adopted  for  the 
unit  of  value,  its  coinage  should  be  unlimited  by 
statute  law,  except  the  government  should  super- 
intend or  perform  the  work  to  guard  against  fraud. 
This  is  the  case  now,  so  no  new  law  is  needed  on 
this  point. 

A  silver  dollar-piece  could  be  made  the  standard 
unit  of  value  and  was  so  until  1873,  and  perhaps 
with  quite  as  much  reason  and  beneficial  results  as 


56 

the  one  now  in  use,  but  whatever  material  is  used 
for  that  purpose,  should  be  restricted  in  its  amount 
of  coinage  by  the  demands  of  commerce  alone.  In 
the  very  nature  of  things  two  units  of  value  cannot 
be  used  any  more  than  two  units  of  length  ;  with 
gold  coin  as  a  standard,  commercial  convenience 
should  be  the  consideration  governing  the  issue  of 
the  other  coins  or  money,  carrying  with  it  all  or  a 
part  of  the  value  on  which  its  currency  is  based. 
This  again  is  about  the  state  of  that  branch  of 
the  currency  to-day. 

Government  should  issue  paper  money  based 
u])on  pledges  or  security  in  its  control  to  supply  all 
the  demands  of  commerce  not  supplied  by  the 
kinds  of  money  which  I  have  mentioned,  gold,  sil- 
ver and  the  minor  coins.  Does  it  do  so  ?  Not 
altogether.  Yet  it  does  so  to  a  sufficient  extent  to 
prove  that  it  is  possible  to  do  so  to  exactly  a  suf- 
ficient extent. 

The  Government  can  issue  its  own  notes  upon 
its  own  credit  so  long  as  its  own  credit  represented 
by  its  notes  is  at  par  with  the  unit  of  value.  We 
have  an  example  of  this  species  of  money  in  the 
Treasury  note  and  United  States  notes  commonly 
called  greenbacks. 

If  commerce   should      need  more  paper  money 


i*   fVion 


57 


than  the  resources  of  the  National  Government  were 
sufficient  to  secure  or  more  than  its  expenditures 
would  enable  it  to  put  into  circulation,  for  value 
received  by  it,  it  should  provide  other  means  of 
securing  it  and  of  getting  it  into  circulation,  for 
a  valuable  consideration. 

Now  has  it  provided  such  a  means  and  such  a 
currency  ?  We  have  a  kind  of  paper  money,  issued 
by  the  authority  of  the  government,  having  its 
credit  based  on  pledges  of  private  property,  (the 
value  of  which  however,  is  the  value  of  the  Nation's 
credit,)  National  IJank  Notes,  but  it  is  neither 
issued  by  the  Government  for  value  received,  nor 
issued  to  the  people  in  quantities  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  commerce.  It  is  issued  to  private  corpo- 
rations practically  free  of  charge,  and  by  those  cor- 
porations issued  to  the  people  not  to  meet  the  just 
needs  and  demands  of  commerce,  but  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  corporations.  They  are  private  in- 
stitutions, having  no  motive  in  supplying  money 
to  commerce  except  that  of  their  personal  private 
interest  which  they  nourish  through  the  gains  they 
make  in  manipulating  the  supply  of  money. 

This  system  is  objectionable  for  the  reasons  that 
it  amounts  to  a  free  gift  by  the  Government  of  an 
invaluable  franchise  to    that   class   of  citizens  who 


^58 


are  least  in  need  of  it,  and  that  it  places  every  com- 
mercial interest  at  the  disposal  of  that  class,  to  the 
infinite  disadvantage  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
community. 

Now  if  the  interposition  of  these  corporations 
was  necessary,  which  I  positively  deny,  they  should 
be  restrained  from  manipulating  the  supply  of 
money,  by  guarding  the  measure  of  value  against 
variability,  and  making  it  a  necessity  that  they 
should  consult  and  meet  the  just  demands  of  com- 
merce, in  order  to  secure  their  highest  personal 
interests. 

This  most  desirable  end  can  be  accomplished  by 
fixing  the  rate  of  interest  which  money  of  any  and 
every  description  may  draw. 

Variability  in  the  rate  of  interest  for  the  use  of 
money,  is  the  bane  of  commerce,  the  silent  engine 
used  to  bring  about  commercial  revulsions  and 
disaster  the  world  over  and  for  all  past  time.  The 
commercial  value  of  money  is  indicated  by  the 
rate  of  interest  it  draws.  Interest  is  the  price 
paid  for  the  use  of  money,  and  the  value  of  money 
is  shown  by  the  rate  of  interest  it  draws.  Is  this  a 
contradiction  of  my  assertion  that  the  value  of 
money  is  governed  by  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand ?     Not  in  the    least;    rather,    interest   sl^.o  vs 


It^' 


59 

you  the  degree  of  the  supply  and  demand  of 
money,  that  is  all,  and  when  the  rate  of  interest 
changes,  you  know  by  that,  that  the  ratio  between 
supply  and  demand  has  been  changed  also. 

Now  it  is  clear  that  when  persons  or  corporations 
whose  business  it  is  to  furnish  money  for  com- 
merce by  lending  it  to  the  people,  and  they  have 
the  money,  and  do  not  lend  it,  it  is  because  they 
ask  more  for  the  use  of  it  than  is  profitable  to 
others.  If  they  stint  the  supply  they  can  get  the 
more  in  proportion  for  what  they  supply,  so  that 
with  a  small  security  and  scant  supply  of  money, 
with  high  rate  of  interest  they  can  make  as  much 
gain  as  with  large  security,  ample  supply  of  money 
and  low  interest. 

To  the  thinking,  reasoning  mind  every-day  life 
in  the  commercial  world  discloses  the  wickedly 
vicious  working  of  this  system.  It  is  through  a 
vicious,  variable  rate  of  interest,  that  those  who 
effect   corners    in    money    reap    their  unjust  gains. 

e  all  know  that  corners  in  wheat,  corn,  butter 
and  any  of  the  necessaries  of  life  are  ruinous 
to  the  many  and  profitable  to  the  few. 

But  since  money  is  the  measure  of  the  values  of 
all  other  commercial   articles,  a  corner  In  it  affects 


60 


every  other  article  of  commerce  by  changing  its 
commercial  value  to  suit  the  value  of  money. 

So,  I  say,  it  is  the  duty  of  Government,  who 
authorizes  the  issue  of  money,  to  regulate  its  value 
by  fixing  the  rate  of  interest  it  may  draw  when 
loaned  for  use,  and  fix  it  so  securely  that  it  cannot 
and  will  not  be  changed. 

A  few  will  object  that  it  would  be  a  violation 
of  unalienable  rights  for  Government  to  pass  a  law 
imposing  a  penalty  on  any  one  for  lending  his 
money  as  cheaply  or  as  dearly  as  he  pleased  and 
could.  They  do  not  object  so  much  to  a  penalty 
for  lending  money  for  more  than  a  certain  rate, 
principally,  I  suppose,  because  there  have  nearly 
always  been  laws  with  a  view  to  that  effect,  but  they 
say,  it  would  be  absurd,  outrageous^  to  say  that  a 
man  should  not  be  permitted  to  lend  his  money  to 
a  poor  fellow  who  was  not  able  to  pay  more,  or 
the  legal  rate,  for  as  low  a  rate  as  he  pleased. 
"  Why  "  say  they,  "  that  would  practically  prohi- 
bit acts  of  charity  1"  These  are  the  main  objections 
raised  to  a  fixed,  un variable  rate  of  interest,  and  are 
raised  by  those  engaged  in  the  unholy  traffic,  to 
conceal  their  real  motives,  or  by  those  who  are 
blind  to  the  most  gigantic  evil  that  ever  oppressed 
mankind. 


61 

It  is  not  the  small  capitalist  who  creates  a  cor- 
ner in  money.  It  is  not  he  who  vouchsafes  to  or 
withholds  life  from  commerce,  but  I  hold  that  all 
laws  relating  to  money  or  anytliing  of  such  general 
importance,  should  be  general,  and  should  be  en- 
acted with  a  view  of  accomplishing  the  greatest 
good  to  the  greatest  number,  and  who  will  deny 
that  if  fixing  the  rate  of  interest  on  money  would 
secure  us  stability  in  the  measure  of  value,  its  ad- 
vantages would  be  immensely  greater  than  its  disad- 
vantages ? 

Let  me  show  you  then  how  it  would  accomplish 
that  end,  supposing  Government  should  fix  the  legal 
rate  of  interest  at  three  per  cent,  per  annum  —  to 
be  no  more  and  no  less. 

If  gold  was  worth  less  than  three  [)ercent.  in  the 
arts,  and  as  money  in  other  countries,  it  would 
be  coined  into  money.     If  more   in  the   arts  than 

I  in  money  it  would  leave  the  money  and  go  into 
Ihe  arts  ;  this  would  leave  the  supply  of  gold 
inoney  subject  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  of 
Commerce  and  not  to  the  will  of  the  usurer. 
'  When  the  demand  for  money  exceeded  riie 
supply  of  gold  coin,  paper  and  other  money  would 
be  issued  to  meet  that  demand.  The  commerce 
would  suffer  no  loss  by    the   withdrawal  of  the  gold 


62 

from  circulation,  because  credit  or  paper  money 
equal  to  gold  coin  in  value  would  take  the  place  of 
gold  coin.  By  fixing  the  rate  of  interest  gold  coin, 
of  which  the  unit  of  value  is  composed,  may  draw 
as  money,  we  fix  its  value  as  money ;,  and  by  con- 
fining paper  money  to  the  same  rate  we  preserve 
the  equality  in  the  value  of  the  currency.  This 
too,  would  prevent  corners  in  money,  for  the 
simple  reason,  that  those  who  would  otherwise 
corner  it  could  gain  no  advantage  by  doing  so 
if  they  could,  being  compelled  to  lay  out  of  the 
use  of  their  money  while  they  withheld  it  from 
circulation  without  enhancing  its  value,  and  it 
would  thus,  be  to  the  personal  interest  of  those  whv^ 
issued  the  money  to  provide  all  that  was  demand- 
ed by  commerce  at  the  legal  rate.  The  more 
they  issued  the  more  their  profits  would  be,  and 
when  we  want  anything  which  it  is  in  the  power  of 
another  to  give,  and  it  is  for  his  personal  interest 
to  give  it,  we  are  assured  that  our  wants  will  be 
gratified  ;  now  does  any  one  still  question  the  right 
of  Congress  to  fix  such  a  rate  of  interest  ?  If  so,  1 
will  refer  him  to  Article  1,  Section  8,  of  the  Consti- 
tution, where  it  is  laid  down  that  Congress  shall 
have  power,  not  only  to  coin  money,  but  regulate 
the  value  thereof.     Now,   if  it  has  the  power    to 


63 

regulate  the  value  of  money,  should  it  not  do  so  ? 
And  how  can  it  do  so  without  fixing  an  unvariable 
rate  of  interest?  Is  it  not  as  necessary  that  the 
measure  of  value  should  be  fixed  and  unvariable, 
as  that  the  measure  of  length  or  weight  shall  be 
so  fixed  ? 

Now  a  few  words  as  to  who  should  issue  the  paper 
money.  The  founders  of  this  Republic  conferred 
on  Congress  the  powers  over  the  value  of  money, 
for  the  obvious  purpose  of  protecting  tiie  measure 
of  value  from  the  mercenary  manipulations  of  pri- 
vate persons  or  corporations.  It  conferred  this 
power  in  the  same  article  and  section  of  the  Con- 
stitution that  it  did  the  power  over  the  standard  of 
weights  and  other  measures.  When  this  power  was 
conferred  on  Congress,  with  it  was  imposed  the 
duty  of  wisely  exercising  that  power  ;  to  delegate 
that  power  to  private  persons  or  corporations,  and 
leave  it  to  the  discretion  of  those  persons  or  cor- 
porations how  that  power  shall  be  exercised,  is  a 
base  abdication  of  sovereign  power. 

The  power  that  exercises  the  control  of  the  sup- 
ply of  mone^,  performs  a  sovereign  function,  the 
importance  of  which  cannot  be  exaggerated.  The 
very  life  of  commerce  is  subject  to  it,  and  the  abuse 
of  that    power    has  marked   its    path    with  fortunes 


64 


wrecked,  homes  turned  to  sepulchres,  and  honest 
toilers,  the  noblest  of  God's  handiwork,  driven 
from  thrift  and  comfort  to  penury,  misery  and 
despair. 

Shall  we  the  sovereign  people  of  this  country 
allow  this  work  of  destruction  to  go  on  ?  We, 
whose  servants  Congressmen  are,  shall  we  submit  to 
the  demands  of  Shylock  for  his  pound  of  flesh,  when 
by  the  power  we  have,  we  can  cause  Shylock  to 
seek  us  for  favor  ?  Let  the  Government  provide  a 
supply  of  money,  sufficient  to  meet  the  demands  of 
commerce  and  at  a  fixed  rate  of  interest,  and  com- 
pel all  other  money-lenders  to  conform  to  the  same 
rate  on  penalty  of  forfeiting  the  whole  amount 
illegally  loaned,  and  that  to  the  borrower,  and  we 
will  have  a  money  system  so  just  and  equitable,  and 
a  measure  of  value  so  unvariable  and  certain,  that 
the  commerce  of  the  country  will  be  regenerated 
in  vigor,  the  cry  of  the  unemployed  will  no  long- 
er be  heard,  and  the  chief  of  the  forces  which  has 
forever  been  making  the  rich  richer  and  the  poor 
poorer,  will  have  become  harmless  among  men, 
and  that  which  was  designed  to  be  the  servant  of 
man,  will  no  longer  be  his  oppressor. 


/V  DIALOGUE 


BETWEEN  — 


A.  and  B.  on  the  Money  Question, 

By  A.    H.  LOW. 

A.  What  is  your  horse  worth,  B.  ? 

B.  One  hundred  dollars. 

A.  What  is  one  hundred  dollars  worth  ? 

B.  Six  dollars  a  year. 

A.  What  is  a  dollar  worth  ? 

B.  Six  cents  a  year. 

A.  I  do  not  mean  what  is  its  use  worth. 

B.  Well,  its  present  worth  is  23.22  grains  of 
gold  coined  into  a  dollar-piece  of  25.8  grains. 

A.  But  how  do  you  know  the  worth  of  your 
gold  dollar  ? 

B.  I  know  that  its  supply  is  less  than  its  de- 
mand for  use,  because  men  are  willing  to  return  it 
and  an  addition  of  six  per  cent,  for  the  use  of  it  a 
year. 

A.     What  is  money  used  for  ? 

1^.  In  making  exchanges  of  labor  and  commo- 
dities. 

A.  Is  money  used  more  in  making  exchanges 
than  other  things  are  ? 


66 


B.     Yes,  nearly  as  much  as  all  of  them. 

A.  Why  is  money  given  such  a  preference  in 
making  exchanges  ? 

B.  Because  it  is  by  law  made  the  measure  of 
value^  and  the  value  of  everything  for  sale  is  com- 
pared with  its  value. 

A.  Oh.  Ah  !  But  B.,  how  do  you  know  your 
horse  is  worth  one  hundred  dollars? 

B.  Well  there  are  men  in  this  country  who  need 
horses  that  have  none,  and  when  they  have  one 
hundred  dollars,  are  willing  to  exchange  it  for  a 
good  horse  like  this ;  and  there  are  men  who  have 
such  horses  who  need  what  one  hundred  dollars 
will  buy  more  than  they  need  the  horse,  so  they  ex- 
change. 

A.  But  cannot  a  man  get  more  than  six  dollars 
net  profit  out  of  the  use  of  such  a  horse  in  one 
year? 

B.  Oh,  certainly  he  can  !  It  is  a  poor  horse 
indeed,  that  would  not  net  his  owner  six  dollars  in 
one  year. 

A.  Then  why  is  he  not  worth  more  than  one 
hundred  dollars  ? 

B.  There  are  several  reasons  —  but  all  centre 
in  one  —  the  difference  between  supply  and  de- 
mand. 


6' 


A.  Supply  and  demand  of  what  ? 

B.  Supply  of  and  demand  for  such  horses  as 
mine. 

A.  I  thought  the  usefulness  of  a  horse  deter- 
mined what  its  price  should  be. 

B.  Well,  that  has  something,  but  not  all,  to  do 
with  it. 

A.  1  wish  you  would  explain. 

B.  Many  things  are  immensely  useful,  that  have 
no  commercial  value  or  price  ;  air,  sunlight,  water 
etc.  are  fair  examples.  These  are  indispensable 
and  valuable,  but  priceless  ;  everybody  is  supplied 
with  all  he  needs  and  that  freely. 

A.  You  said  six  dollars  a  year  interest  indicated 
the  value  of  one  hundred  dollars  I  think  ? 

B.  It  shows  the  commercial  value  of  the  use  of 
that  sum. 

A.  Then  the  interest  it  draws  does  not  deter- 
mine the  intrinsic  value  of  money  or  its  security  ? 

B.  No.  It  shows  the  difference  between  the 
supply  of  and  demand  for  jnotiey. 

A.  But  would  not  the  price  paid  for  the  use  of 
a  horse  for-a  year  show  the  difference  between  the 
supply  of  and  demand  for  such  horse  ? 

B.  Yes. 

A.      Would  not  six   dollars    then  be  a  fair  com- 


68 

pensation  for  the  use  of  a  one-hundred-dollar  horse 
for  one  year  ? 
B.     Oh  no  1 

A.  Now  it  seems  to  me  that  if  six  dollars  is  the 
price  of  the  use  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  a  year, 
six  dollars  ought  to  be  the  price  for  the  use  of  a 
one-hundred-dollar-horse    for  the  same  length  of 

time. 

B.  You  seem  to  forget  that  the  nature  of  the 

two  are  widely  different.  Money  is  practically 
imperishable  ;  under  the  protection  that  law  pro- 
vides, money  is  capable  of  being  used  eternally, 
and  may  be  as  capable  of  drawing  interest  the 
last  year  as  the  first ;  while  a  horse  can  live  only 
a  few  years  at  most  and  with  the  best  of  treat- 
ment is  soon  incapable  of  earning  his  own  food, 
so  that  what  he  profits  his  owner  must  be  done 
quickly ;  and  then,  his  owner  runs  the  risk  of 
his  dying  or  becoming  disabled.  The  money- 
lender has  no  such  concern  —  furthermore,  when 
a  man  pays  for  the  use  of  a  horse  he  generally 
pays  in  money,  not  in  a  certain  part  of  a  horse. 

A.  Now  let  us  talk  about  interest  on  money  a 
little. 

B.  Agreed,  what  can  you  tell  me  about  it  ? 
A.     I  am  here  to  ask  questions. 


69 

B.     All  right,  I  am  here  to  answer. 

A.  I  suppose  the  rate«of  interest  is  regulated  by 
law  on  a  basis  of  justice  between  man  and  man,  is 
it  not? 

B.  You  were  never  more  mistaken. 

A.  But  do  not  all  of  the  States  have  legal  rafes 
of  interest? 

B.  Yes,  but  those  rates  have  but  little  effect 
on  money-lending. 

A.  What  are  they  for  then  ? 

B.  When  a  dA)t  becomes  due,  as  a  judgment  of 
a  Court  for  a  sum  of  money,  or  a  promise  is  made 
for  the  payment  of  money  in  future  with  interest 
and  no  rate  of  interest  is  mentioned,  the  law 
presumes  that  the  legal  rate  is  agreed  upon. 

A.  But  what  is  usury  ?  Some  States  at  least 
have  usur^  law.s. 

B.  Interest  was  once  called  usury,  but  as  now 
used,  usury  means  interest  in  excess  of  the  legal 
rate.  The  penalty  for  usury  is  seldom  severe 
enough  to- prevent  it. 

A.  Why  so?  I  should  think  if  Government 
could  declare  a  legal  rate  of  interest,  it  ought  to  be 
able  to  enforce  it. 

B.  So  it  should,  but    the  money-lenders  have  a 


good  deal  to  do   with    making  those  laws  and  they 
leave  room  for  evasion. 

A.  But  what  need  is  there  of  any  usury  laws,  or 
any  laws  on  interest  at  all  ?  Why  not  leave  every- 
body free  to  make  their  own  bargains  and  let  every 
case  be  governed  by  its  peculiar  circumstances  ? 

B.  Do  you  not  remember  that  I  told  you,  mon- 
ey is  the  measure  of  commercial  value  ?  That  be- 
ing so,  any  change  in  its  rate  of -interest  indi- 
cates a  change  in  its  measuring  capacity,  where- 
as being  a  standard  measure  it  ought  to  be  unva- 
riable. 

A.  Your  reasoning  seems  good,  but  if  you  are 
right  all  the  rest  of  the  world  are  wrong,  are  they 
not  ?  And  if  you  say  that,  then  you  must  be  crazy 
or  what  we  moderns  call  a  crank. 

B.  If  this  were  not  so  serious  a  matter  I  would 
laugh  at  you.  How  many  years  has  it  been  since 
a  man  was  condemned  and  sentenced  to  have  his 
head  cut  off,  and,  that  too,  by  a  high  court  of 
learned  wise  men  (?)  for  saying  that  the  earth  re- 
volved around  the  sun?  And  yet  to-day,  one 
who  denies  it  is  almost  as  certain  of  being  sent  to 
an  insane  asylum.  Age  will  not  make  a  falsehood 
truth,  neither  will  Truth  down  at  sight  of  a  host  of 
opposition.     The  institution  of  money  is  purely   a 


I 


human  invention,  and  if  it  don't  work  right  as  a 
system,  tliere  is  no  divine  prohibition  to  our 
examining  it,  and  if  we  can  find  a  difficulty,  we 
have  a  right  and  it  is  our  duty  to  apply  a'remedy, 
if  we  can  invent  one. 

A.  Well,  I  notice  that  those  who  have  the  least 
money  are  generally  those  who  find  the  most  fault 
with  our  money  system. 

B.  Your  observation  is  correct,  although  I  fear 
1  detect  sarcasm  in  your  remark.  May  I  ask  you, 
do  the  well  seek  a  physician  ?  Do  oppressors  com- 
plain of  oppression  ?  Do  our  millionaires  com- 
plain of  a  system  or  condition  of  things  that  enables 
them  to  multiply  their  riches  year  after  year  out  of 
the  earnings  of  millions  of  their  fellow  beings,  and 
that  too  without  the  performance  of  an  honest  day's 
labor  in  a  year  ?  None  but  sufferers  seek  relief, 
and  if  their  opponents  cannot  answer  their  ques- 
tions and  arguments,  their  only  resort  is  further 
wrong,  or  ridicule,  and  I  tell  you,  hundreds  of  us  will 
bear  ivrong  where  one  will  brave  ridicule. 

A.  You  reply  with  considerable  spirit.  Do  you 
really  think  there  is  any  thing  radically  wrong  with 
our  money  system  ? 

H.  Indeed,  I  know  it,  and  not  only  ours,  but 
that  of  every  nation  I  know  of  on  earth. 


72 


A.  Ha,  ha!  Surely  B.,  you  must  be  provided 
with  kind  treatment  in  an  asykim.  But  since  you 
are  so  much  in  earnest,  will  you  point  out  to  me 
wherein  the  nations  need  regulating  in  their  money 
systems  ? 

B.  You  want  a  six  weeks'  lecture  condensed  into 
three  minutes  I  suppose,  without  anything  left  to 
be  understood. 

A.  Tliat's  about  it,  and  of  course  I  don't  ex- 
pect to  understand  that,  since  you  seem  to  be 
the  only  man  on  earth  who  can  and  does  under- 
stand it. 

B.  You  are  quite  in  error  about  numbers.  On 
the  contrary  there  are  but  few  people  in  the  world 
who  do  not  believe  there  is  some  evil  of  fearful 
power  in  money  so  much  so  that  there  is  a  prov- 
erb current  amon.;  its  victims,  that  '^  money  is 
the  root  of  all  evil,"  but  those  who  have  plenty  of 
money  seldom  quote  the  proverb.  I  have  made  it 
my  business  to  investigate  the  matter  to  see  if  I  can 
fmd  what  is  wrong,  and  I  think  I  have  discovered 
it  and  invented  a  remedy.  I  do  not  claim,  however, 
that  1  am  alone  in  either  the  discovery  or  the  in- 
vention. I  have  drawn  largely  from  the  opinions, 
learning  and  arguments   of  others,  to  any  of  whom 


I 


73 

I  am  ready  to  ascribe  superiority  in  everything  but 
good  intentions. 

A.  I  must  say  you  are  very  modest  in  your  pre- 
tensions, but  I  am  all  ears  for  your  theory,  although 
I  expect  to  find  it  a  house  built  upon  sand,  or  per- 
haps even  in  air,  but  I  will  do  as  well  as  I  can  to 
divest  myself  of  my  prejudices  in  favor  of  **  the  best 
money  system  in  the  world,"   while  I  listen  to  you. 

]5.  Since  you  seem  to  be  honest  and  willing  to 
give  mc  a  fair  chance,  I  proceed  to  give  you  such 
light  as  I  am  able.  You  will  admit,  I  trust,  that  in 
every  commercial  country  the  money  of  that 
country  is  such  as  the  law  prescribes,  and  that  differ- 
ent nations  have  different  money.  That  there  is 
nothing  that  is  actually  money  the  world  over. 

A.  I  am  not  so  ready  to  agree  with  you.  Take 
gold  and  silver,  or  gold  alone,  is  not  that  money 
anywhere  and  everywhere  ? 

B.  No  Sir.  Gold  is  pretty  generally  accepted 
in  exchange  for  other  commodities  but  it  is  always 
by  weight  when  it  is  out  of  the  country  in  which  it 
was  coined  into  money.  A  gold  coin  carries  no 
legal  power  with  it  out  of  the  country  in  which  it 
was  coined,  unless  the  laws  of  the  other  country 
have  expressly  made  it  a  legal  tender. 

A.      What  do  you  mean  by  thnt  ? 


14 


-  B. »  By  a  legal  tender  I  mean,  that  function 
which  the  law  of  a  country  adds  to  the  material  of 
which  its  money  is  made,  so  that  a  creditor  is  bound 
to  take  it  when  tendered  in  payment  of  his  claim  or 
else  have  nothing  for  it. 

A.  Well,  is  not  gold  a  legal  tender  in  this 
country  ? 

B.  No,  not  until  it  is  coined  into  money  ac- 
cording to  law. 

A.  Well,  go  on. 

B.  Since,  then,  the  money  of  a  nation  is  pre- 
scribed by  and  made  according  to  the  law  of  that 
nation,  there  must  be  a  power  somewhere  to  carry 
the  law  into  execution,  by  doing  that  with  the 
special  commodity  which  will  convert  it  into  mon- 
ey, unless  the  law  designates  some  commodity  as  a 
class  for  that  purpose  —  which  is  not  usual. 

A.  The  government  of  each  nation  attends  to 
the  matter,  I  suppose. 

B.  That  depends  upon  who  the  Government 
happens  to  be.  Under  a  despotism  or  absolute 
monarchy  undoubtedly  the  matter  is  attended  to 
for  the  interests  of  the  government,  for  it  is  among 
the  most  important  prerogatives  of  sovereig.nty. 
No  government  can  exist  long  after  that  prerogative 
has  passed  out  of  its  control. 


\ 


75 

A.  I  suppose  in  a  free  country  like  this  the  same 
rule  does  not  apply  ?  Everybody  is  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  the  Government. 

B.  In  this  country  the  people  are  the  Govern- 
ment or  at  least  our  Constitution  was  established  on 
that  proposition,  and  if  in  an  absolute  monarchy, 
the  prerogative  of  making  or  issuing  the  money  is 
essential  to  the  i:>erpetuity  of  the  Government,  it 
follows  that  that  prerogative  should  be  as  sacredly 
preserved  in  the  Government  representing  the  peo- 
l)le  of  this  country. 

A.  Well  we  are  all  right  then,  for  Article  1, 
Section  8,  of  the  Constitution  provides  that  Con- 
gress shall  have  power  to  coin  money,  regulate  the 
value  thereof  and  of  foreign  coin,  and  fix  the  stand- 
ard of  weights  and  measures. 

B.  What  good  is  that  authority  unless  it  is 
exercised  ? 

A.  But  don't  the  Government  coin  all  the  mon- 
ey of  this  country  ? 

B.  By  no  means,  I  do  not  suppose  you  will  con- 
fine the  word  coin  to  the  forming  and  stamping  of 
metal  money.  Whatever  is  made  money  is  coined 
as  much  as  tho*  it  were  metal.  Everything  to  be 
money  must  first  be  coined  such. 


76 

A.  I  don't  think  I  will  admit  that.  A  coin  is  a 
piece  of  metal  money. 

B.  But  it  was  not  money  until  coined  ;  coining 
it  made  it  money  ;  it  was  metal  only  before,  and 
since  the  Constitution  provides  for  no  other  than 
coined  money,  we  must  swamp  the  Government  on 
the  construction  of  a  word,  for  want  of  material  to 
coin  into  metal  money,  or  proceed  to  stamp  other 
material  and  endow  it  with  the  properties  of  money 
and  let  the  Government  flourish. 

A.  Well,  there  is  lots  of  money  in  the  country 
besides  metal  money,  so  we  will  not  quarrel  about 
that,  but  don't  the  Government  make  it  all  and 
regulate  its  value  ? 

B.  It  does  not.  The  Government  does  coin 
all  the  metal  money  and  a  considerable  of  paper 
money,  but  a  large  proportion  of  our  money  is 
issued  if  not  coined  by  private  parties.  However, 
the  coinage  is  not  all  the  Constitution  provides  for  • 
Congress  is  to  regulate  the  value  of  money  and 
of  foreign  coins,  and  fix  the  standards  of  weights 
and  measures.  Now  since  money  is  the  measure  of 
value.  Congress  should  fix  its  standard  as  well  as 
that  of  length. 

A.  But  has  it  not  done  so,  in  declaring  25.8 
grains  gold  coin  the  unit  of  value  ? 


77 


B.  No  sir.  Do  you  think  in  fixing  the  stand- 
ard unit  of  weight,  it  would  be  sufficient  to  say  it 
should  be  made  ot  brass  j 

A.  You  are  not  fair.  The  Government  fixes 
the  quantity  of  the  gold  dollar. 

B.  I  admit  that,  but  the  Constitution  says, 
Congress  shall  have  power  to  regulate  the  value ^ 
not  the  quantity  of  money. 

A.  I  think  you  are  splitting  hairs  now.  Is 
not  a  dollar  a  dollar  as  much  one  time  as  another  ? 

B.  Oh  yes,  its  name  never  changes,  but  its  value 
does  very  often. 

A.  How  do  you  make  that  out  ? 

B.  By  observation  and  by  reasoning  from  first 
principles.  You  recollect  that  the  commercial 
value  of  a  thing  depends  upon  the  supply  of  and 
demand  for  it,  and  the  value  of  money  is  as  sensi- 
tive to  that  law  as  anything  else,  and  I  wish  you  to 
bear  in  mind,  that  it  is  the  commerciali  not  the  /«- 
/r/w/i:  value  of  a  thing  that  is  determined  by  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand,  at  the  same  time  the 
two  are-inseparable  in  an  article  of  commerce,  for 
use  is  as  essential  an  element  in  commercial  value  as 
in  intrinsic  value.  Nothing  that  is  useless,  has 
commercial  value.  Now  you  know  that  the  Supply 
of,  is  not  always  in  the  same  proportion  to   the-de- 


78 

mand  for  money.   Hence  I  say  its  value  changes* 

A.  If  that  is  so,  how  does  the  change  in  value 
manifest  itself? 

B.  By  the  change  in  the  rate  of  interest  charged 
and  received  by  those  whose  business  it  is  to  lend 
money. 

A.  How  does  it  happen  that  the  supply  and  de- 
mand vary  so  ? 

B.  It  is  due  to  the  personal  interest  of  those 
who  issue  and  lend  money. 

A.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  the  commerce  of 
the  country,  the  rights  of  everybody  are  at  the 
mercy  of  the  personal  interests  of  any  private  person 
or  persons. 

B.  That  is  it,  sir.  There  is  a  class  of  our  citi- 
zens organized  into  what  are  called  National  Bank- 
ing Associations,  with  special  corporate  rights  and 
the  principal  of  those  rights  is  to  supply  money  for 
the  commerce  of  the  country. 

A.  Well  of  course  they  are  so  controlled  by  law 
as  to  produce  the  most  desirable  results  for  the 
people  who  have  granted  those  rights? 

B.  On  the  contrary,  the  private  interests  of 
those  corporations  are  the  only  regulators  in  the 
matter  of  supplying  much  or  little  money.  If  they 
can  profit  more   by   supplying   much,    they  supply 


19 

much.     If  more  by  supplying  little,  they  supply  but 
little. 

A.  But  how  do  you  account  for  such  an  abdi- 
cation of  sovereign  power  as  you  call  it  by  the 
Government  of  this  country?  I  can't- help  but 
think  you  are  mistaken. 

B.  There  are  two  ways  of  accounting  for  it. 
The  favored  few  corrupted  our  Congress  to  pass  the 
law,  or  else  our  Congress  was  ignorant  of  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  money  depends.  Charity  for- 
bids the  former  idea,  and  pride  of  National  wisdom 
is  reluctant  to  admit  the  latter.  Perhaps  Congress 
acted  upon  the  theory  that  these  bankers  would 
consider  that  their  personal  interests  would  be  in- 
creased by  increased  welfare  and  prosperijty  of  the 
people  generally.  Such  an  idea  has  no  foundation 
in  fact. 

A.  I  am  not  convinced  of  that. 

B.  Well  sir,  money-lenders,  like  lawyers,  doc- 
tors and  wreckers,  make  their  profits  out  of  the 
misfortunes  of  others,  and  when  the  fortunes  of 
others  are  so  much  in  the  power  of  their  *'  helpers  " 
as  the  people's  are  in  the  power  of  the  money-lend- 
ers, especially  the  National  Banking  Associations, 
a  blind  man  ought  to  be  able  to  see  which  of  the 
parties  will  get  the  lion's  share. 


»  80 

A.  But  how  do  other  peoples'  fortunes  depena 
upon  the  pleasure  of  fhe  money-lenders  r  I  think 
you  are  assuming  too  much. 

B.  Will  you  admit  that  it  is  a  misfortune  for  a 
man  to  be  in  debt  and  not  able  to  pay  r 

A.  Most  men  feel  happier  out  ol  it,  at  least  1 
do. 

B.  Well,  suppose  you  were  unfortunate  enough 
to  have  to  borrow  money,  and  you  borrowed  a  sum 
of  money  of  a  banker  at  six  per  cent,  tor  one  year. 
At  the  end  of  the  year  you  wanted  to  renew  your 
note  another  year.  You  had  as  good  security  to 
give  as  you  had  before  but  could  not  pay  the  money 
back  without  a  great  sacrifice  ot  property  ;  but  0:1 
application  you  found  the  rate  ot  interest  to  be 
twelve  per  cent,  which  was  much  more  than  the  use 
of  the  money  would  return  to  you  ;  would  you  not 
consider  yourself  unfortunate,  owing  to  the  change 
of  interest? 

A.  I  should  say  I  would. 

B.  Well,  the  powers  that  supply  the  money 
work  that  change^  and  your  misfortune  is  their 
gain. 

A.  Well,  is  that  all  the  trouble  ;  they  don't  hurt 
those  wiio  don't  have  to  borrow  money,  do  they  ? 

B.  Indeed    thev    do.     Their    influence    is    as 


I 


81 

general  throughout  the  country  as  the  heart's  is  on 
the  body  of  a  man. 

A.  Now  don"  t  go  to  making  poetry  to  me,  keep 
down  to  facts,  plain  and  simple  it  you  have  any. 

B.  No  better  comparison  could  be  made,  but 
you  shall  have  solid  facts,  for  they  are  abundant. 
You  are  aware  that  the  interest  on  money  differs  in 
different  States  ;  and  that  money  commands  a  higher 
rate  of  interest  at  one  time  than  at  another  in  the 
same  State.  Debt  and  credit  are  so  common  in  this 
country  that  there  is  scarcely  any  industry  into  the 
transactions  of  which  they  do  not  enter.  Those 
who  do  not  borrow  or  lend  money  are  scarce  in 
this  country,  except  among  the  poorest  laboring 
class.  This  to  be  sure  comprehends  the  larger 
portion  of  the  community. 

A.     I  am  aware  of  all  that. 

15.  Contracts  are  made  oii  a  t/ioney  basis.  Any 
change  in  the  basis  affects  all  such  contracts. 
When  money  is  paid  on  a  contract  previously  made, 
and  the  money  is  worth  more  than  it  was  when 
the  contract  was  made,  the  one  who  pays  it  loses 
the  difference,  and  vice  versa.  The  change  may  be 
so  unexpected  and  violent  that  the  debtor  cannot 
meet  it.  He  may  have  thousands  of  men  in  his 
employ,  w  hfim  he  is    compelled  to  discharge.      He 


82 

becomes  bankrupt,  and  they  tramps.  As  a  peoi)le 
we  are  dependent  upon  one  another^  and  a  system 
that  works  injustice  to  any,  affects  all,  and  when 
after  a  season  of  activity  and  thrift  a  ''  money 
panic  "  comes,  the  common  laborer  who  lives  from 
hand  to  mouth  but  never  borrows  money  is  the  one 
who  suffers  most. 

A.  Well  I  confess-  you  have  answered  my 
questions  very  clearly  and  perhaps  I  may  as  well 
admit  that  you  have  answered  them  correctly,  but  I 
fear  you  are  like  many  other  doctors,  better  in- 
formed as  to  the  disease,  than  what  will  cure  it. 
It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  we  Americans  are  be- 
coming chronic  grumblers,  we  grumble  about  every- 
thing from  the  weather  to  the  "  hard  times."  I 
hope  yon  are  an  exception  and  will  not  show  up 
our  country's  faults  too  badly  without  pointing  out 
the  way  to  mend  them. 

B,  I  am  certainly  able  to  do  that,  and  since  you 
are  a  good  listener,  it  will  afford  me  great  pleasure 
to  lay  before  you  a  perfect  plan  whereby  we  may 
cure  the  evil  of  our  present  money  system. 

The  first  thing  I  wou'd  advise  would  be  that 
Congress  exercise  the  power  and  perform  the  duty 
imposed  on  it  in  Section  8,  of  Article  1,  of  the  Con- 
stitution, to  fix  th':  standards   of  measures  or  rather 


83 

that  of  the  measure   of  value,    as  well  as  the  other 
standards. 

A.  Surely  it  has  done  so,  for  it  has  declared 
23.22  grains  of  gold  coined  into  a  dollar-piece  of 
26.8  grains  to  be  the  unit  of  value. 

B.  So  far  so  good,  but  what  determines  the 
value  of  the  gold  dollar  ? 

A.  That  is  regulated  by  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand. 

B.  Exactly  so  ;  then  if  its  value  is  regulated  by 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  Congress  docs  not 
regulale  it,  as  the  Constitution  says  it  shall  *'  have 
power  to  coin  money  and  regulate  the  value  there- 
of." 

A.  I  don't  see  what  more  Congress  can  do  to- 
wards regulating  the  value  of  gold.  What  do  you 
mean  ?  - 

B.  Simply  this.  While  the  gold  dollar  is  the 
unit  of  value,  its  value  rises  and  falls  whenever 
there  is  a  change  in  supply  or  demand,  unless  there 
is  a  corresponding  change  in  the  other. 

An  increased  supply  without  an  increased  de- 
mand, lessens  the  value. 

An  increased  demand  without  an  increased  sup- 
ply, increases  the  value. 


84 

A  diminished  supply  without  a  diminished  de- 
mand, increases  the  value. 

A  diminished  demand  without  a  diminished  sup* 
ply,  lessens  the  value. 

A  change  in  both  supply  and  demand  not  corre- 
sponding and  proportional  changes  the  value,  and 
so  since  it  is  practically  imi)ossible  for  Congress  to 
regulate  the  supply  of  gold  it  has  but  one  way  to 
regulate  its  value  and  that  is  by  regulating  its  de- 
mand for  use. 

A.  [t  seems  to  me  as  impossible  for  Congress  to 
regulate  the  demand  as  the  supply  of  gold.  Please 
explain. 

B.  It  is  easily  done.  Gold  is  used  as  money, 
in  this  country  by  permission  of  Congress.  Con- 
gress has  the  power  to  demonetize  it  altogether. 
It  was  only  in  1873  that  the  gold  dollar  was  made 
the  unit  of  value.  If  Congress  should  demonetize 
gold  in  this  country,  it  would  lessen  the  use  of  a 
large  quantity  of  gold  as  money  and  accordingly 
lessen  the  value  of  gold  all  over  the  world.  So  you 
will  see  that  if  Congress  can  regulate  its  use  as  it 
surely  can,  it  can  by  that  very  means  regulate  its 
value. 

A.     I  would  like  to  hear  your  plan. 

V-,     I  Tnu>t    first    recall    your    attention     to  the 


85 

interest  on  money.  You  recollect  that  interest  is 
tlie  price  paid  for  the  use  of  money.  Suppose  we 
say  three  per  cent,  interest  is  a  normal  or  just  rate  of 
interest  at  this  lime.  Now  if  to-morrow  men  need 
money  which  they  have  not  got,  and  they  cannot 
get  it  short  of  five  per  cent,  and  they  will  give  that, 
it  shows  that  the  money  is  worth  more  to-morrow 
than  to-day  does  it  not?  and  if  the  gold  dollar  is 
the  unit  of  value  it  rises  in  value  to  meet  the  in- 
creased demand.  My  plan  then  is  to  prescribe  the 
rate  of  interest  at  a  fixed  point,  and  provide  paper 
money  so  secured  as  to  be  equal  in  value  with  gold, 
to  meet  any  increased  demand  for  money,  over  and 
above  that  rate,  and  in  the  saniQ  manner,  if  foreign 
exchanges  or  the  arts  call  for  gold  so  that  its  value 
would  be  increased  by  lessening  the  supply  of 
money,  I  would  issue  paper  money  to  take  the 
place  of  that  which  is  withdrawn  from  the  currency. 
By  this  means  we  would  have  all  the  money  we 
wanted  at  a  fixed  legal  rate  of  interest  and  would 
counteract  the  influences  of  commerce  in  other 
countries  and  of  sj^eculators  in  their  action  upon 
the  value  of  gold,  our  standard  of  value. 

A.  How  would  you  supply  the  paper  money  so 
promptly  and  regularly? 

B.  The  Government  should   attend  to  the  issue 


86 

of  that  just  as  it  does  to  the  issue  of  metal  money, 
and  further,  I  would  have  the  Government  establish 
loan  offices  all  over  the  country,  wherever  needed, 
and  lend  its  notes  to  the  people  on  demand,  by 
their  giving  good  security  for  it,  and  that  it  should 
always  be  loaned  at  a  fixed  rate  of  interest.  I 
would  also  have  the  Government  declare  its  notes 
money,  and  a  full  legal  tender. 

A.  That  might  do  to  get  money  out  into  circu- 
lation, but  how  about  contracting  it  when  com- 
merce did  not  need  it  ? 

B.  Whenever  money  would  not  be  worth  the 
legal  rate  of  interest  it  would  show  that  there  was 
too  much  in  circulation  and  those  who  had  bor- 
rowed of  the  Government  would  pay  back  their 
loans  and  take  up  their  securities. 

A.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  your  plan  would 
favor  the  rich  by  giving  those  who  had  securities 
to  put  up  the  only  chance  to  borrow  money. 

B.  Would  it  do  so  any  more  than  the  present 
system  ?  Can  a  poor  man  get  money  at  our  banks 
now?  You  will  see  I  do  no"  propose  to  lend  mon- 
ey to  anybody  free  of  charge  as  the  Government 
does  to  the  National  banks  now.  Those  who  have 
property  to  give  as  security  won't  borrow  money 
and  pay  interest  on  it  and    then  lock  it  up  in  their 


87       •••■•;.;;•;::: 

safes.  When  they  borrow  it,  it  will  be  to  use  it 
ana  that  means  that  they  will  buy  property  with  it 
or  employ  laborers  to  work  in  some  of  the  fields  of 
industry,  and  thai  means  activity  in  commerce,  and 
that  means  general  prosperity. 

A.  But  why  should  Government  charge  interest 
on  its  loans,  to  the  people.  It  seems  to  me  that  if 
the  Government  could  lend  money  in  that  way  it 
could  do  it  at  least  for  what  it  cost  to  keep  up  the 
loan  offices  and  print  the  notes. 

B.  For  Government  to  loan  to  the  rich  or  those 
who  could  put  up  security  alone,  and  that  without 
charge,  would  be  a  great  wrong,  one  of  the  wrongs 
I  seek  to  stop  ;  for  now  the  Government  is  doing 
practically  that  for  the  National  Banks,  vvho  pay 
for  the  Government  indorsement  only  a  small  tax  to 
pay  the  cost  of  printing  notes,  etc.  There  are  two 
good  reasons  why  Government  should  charge 
interest. 

First.  If  Government  should  issue  money  free 
of  cost  to  all  who  applied  money  would  soon  lose 
all  its  value.  It  is  only  from  the  fact  that  there  is 
a  difference  between  supply  and  demand  that  any- 
thing has  commercial  value. 

Secomi.  The  Government  is  a  part  of  or  repre- 
sentative   of  everybody.     The   use    of  money    is 


88 


valuable  and  it  would  be  unjust  for  Government  to 
lend  money  to  one  without  a  consideration  and  not 
to  all  alike,  and  if  everybody  could  get  money  of 
the  Government  by  the  asking,  the  money  would 
soon  lose  its  value.  No  one  would  exchange  his 
property  for  the  money  of  another  when  he  could 
get  the  same  amount  of  money  of  the  Government 
for  nothing.  Again  if  the  borrower  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  required  to  pledge  the  title  to  his  proper- 
ty for  the  loan  and  was  still  permitted  to  enjoy  the 
use  of  the  property  and  paid  nothing  for  the  use  of 
the  money,  there  would  be  no  inducement  for  him 
to  return  the  money,  and  the  man  who  had  the  most 
property  to  pledge  in  that  way  could  get  the  most 
favor  from  the  Government  —  just  the  injustice  I 
am  trying  to  check. 

Again  —  the  credit  of  the  United  States  is  the 
common  stock  of  all,  and  whoever  draws  from  that 
stock  should  leave  an  equivalent  for  that  which  he 
gets,  which  equivalent  belongs  to  all  in  common. 

Can  you  understand  my  theory  now  ? 

A.  I  do,  or  let  me  see  —  you  advocate  a  fixed 
and  uniform  rate  of  interest.  That  the  Govern- 
ment should  always  stand  ready  to  lend  money  at 
that  rate.  That  all  money  should  be  issued  by  the 
Government  whether  metal    or  paper,  and  that  the 


89 


volume  of  the  money  should  be  regulated  by  the 
demands  of  commerce  alone,  and  the  value  of  it  re- 
gulated and  fixed  by  the  law  of  the  country. 

B.  You  have  it,  sir,  to  a  dot,  which  shows  me 
you  have  l)een  an  attentive  listener  for  which  1 
sincerely  thank  you. 

A.  1  am  as  thankful  to  yoii,  for  you  have  taught 
nie  to  think,  and  not  to  be  led  by  partisans  nor 
driven  with  a  i)arty  whij). 

Hereafter  1  shall  advocate  the  Common  Sense 
System  of  Finance. 


NoTR. — The  Author  cordially  invites    j)ublic  and  private 
lilicism. 


The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire."    Luke  x.  7. 


Copies  of  this  book  can  be  obtained  of  A,   H,    ,  _ 

Duke  Centre,  McKean  Co.,   Pa.,  by  mail,   post 

age  paid,   by  writing  to    him,  giving  name 

and  address,    and  enclosing  for  single 

copies  15  cents,     10  copies  or 

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